Insights into Nuclear Reactions through Fusion Barrier Distribution Measurements

The study of nuclear fusion has been greatly enhanced following the realisation that an experimental fusion barrier distribution can be determined from precisely measured fusion cross-sections. Experimental fusion barrier distributions for different reactions have shown clear signatures of a range of nuclear structure effects, for example those of static quadrupole and hexadecapole deformations, and of coupling to single- and double-phonon states. Applications of this improved quantitative understanding of fusion in the fields of fission, and fusion of weakly bound nuclei are discussed.