Quasifission Dynamics in the Formation of Superheavy Elements

Superheavy elements are created through the fusion of two heavy nuclei. The large Coulomb energy that makes superheavy elements unstable also makes fusion forming a compact compound nucleus very unlikely. Instead, after sticking together for a short time, the two nuclei usually come apart, in a process called quasifission. Mass-angle distributions give the most direct information on the characteristics and time scales of quasifission. A systematic study of carefully chosen mass-angle distributions has provided information on the global trends of quasifission. Large deviations from these systematics at beam energies near the capture barrier reveal the major role played by the nuclear structure of the two colliding nuclei in determining the reaction outcome, and thus implicitly in hindering or favouring superheavy element synthesis.