FACETS OF FUSION AND FISSION DYNAMICS INVESTIGATED via HEAVY-ION REACTIONS AROUND THE COULOMB BARRIER

Abstract

Nuclear reactions have proved to be instrumental in our understanding of the fundamental forces vis-´a-vis, the understanding of the universe itself. This has mostly been propelled by the extensive advancement in experimental techniques and the basic theory. Massive investments in the development of advanced detection setups, upgraded accelerator facilities, software support along with data analysis, and invaluable collaborative efforts around the world have led to greater strides in comprehending the dynamics of heavy-ion (HI) induced nuclear reactions, nuclear structure, and related phenomena in a better way. The fusion phenomenon is particularly interesting, given the degree of complexity it brings in when two HIs collide. Several distinct processes, like complete fusion (CF), incomplete fusion (ICF), few nucleon transfers, pre-equilibrium (PEQ) emissions, fusion-fission, etc., appear in these collisions. Also, the sensitiveness of fusion to coupling to various degrees of freedom has generated renewed interest in both experimental as well as theoretical investigations. The focus has been on new developments in fusion studies with weakly bound nuclei on one front and the fusion-induced fission studies of the nuclei (A < 200) on the other, both serving as topics providing new and exciting physics. These have additionally driven the application of HI reactions for societal good, industrial requirements, and interdisciplinary research. Henceforth, the prime goal of this work is to deepen the understanding of various reaction processes, e.g., CF, ICF, PEQ, nucleon transfer, and multimodal fission using HI-induced reactions within the energy range of 10 MeV/nucleon.