(Multi-)nucleon transfer in the reactions ¹⁶O, ³²S+²⁰⁸Pb

A detailed analysis of the projectile-like fragments detected at backward angles in the reactions ¹⁶O,³² S+²⁰⁸Pb at energies below the fusion barrier is presented. Excitation functions corresponding to nucleon transfer with Δ Z = 1 and Δ Z = 2 were extracted, indicating surprisingly large absolute probabilities at subbarrier energies. A comparison of 2_p transfer probabilities with time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations suggests strong pairing correlations between the two protons. Excitation energies in the projectile-like fragments ~15 MeV and ~25 MeV for the ¹⁶O and ³²S-induced reactions, respectively, indicate the population of highly excited states in the residual nuclei. A comparison with expected optimum Q-values suggests large losses in kinetic energy of the projectile-like fragments. These highly inelastic (large excitation energies) and complex (correlated few-nucleon transfer) processes may be closely related to the depletion of fusion through tunnelling at sub-barrier energies.