Microscopic study of fusion reactions with a weakly bound nucleus: Effects of deformed halo

We present a microscopic study on the fusion reactions 14,15C + 232Th by emphasizing the effect of deformed halo structure on reaction dynamics within the framework of time-dependent density functional theory. The internuclear potentials are obtained by using the density-constraint frozen Hartree-Fock approach and then are adopted to calculate the fusion cross sections of 14,15C +232Th, taking all the orientations of deformed reactants into account. Our microscopic calculations not only reproduce the enhancement of fusion cross sections at sub-barrier energies without any adjustable parameters, but also reveal the underlying mechanism of this enhancement, which is driven by the deformed halo structure of 15C. More interestingly, by performing particle number projection based on the wave functions from time-dependent Hartree-Fock simulation, we find that the one-neutron transfer probabilities are more sensitive to the orientations of 15C than 232Th, indicating the notable effects of halo structure on the reaction dynamics.

Automated summary

We conducted a microscopic study on the fusion reactions 14,15C + 232Th, focusing on the influence of deformed halo structure on reaction dynamics using the time-dependent density functional theory. By obtaining internuclear potentials through the density-constraint frozen Hartree-Fock approach, we calculated the fusion cross sections of 14,15C + 232Th considering all orientations of deformed reactants. Our calculations successfully reproduced the enhancement of fusion cross sections at sub-barrier energies and provided insights into the underlying mechanism driven by the deformed halo structure of 15C. Additionally, we found that the one-neutron transfer probabilities were more sensitive to the orientations of 15C than 232Th, indicating the notable effects of halo structure on the reaction dynamics.