The Friction Model for Deep-Inelastic and Fusion Reactions

Abstract

Perhaps the most exciting and surprising discovery of nuclear reactions of heavy ions at lower intermediate energies was the discovery of a new, unexpected reaction type in the early 1970s, the deep-inelastic collisions [9.1−3]. At bombarding energies below about 10 MeV/nucleon, colliding nuclei convert most of the surplus kinetic energy above their mutual Coulomb barrier into internal heating. Despite this violent excitation, both nuclei leave the region of the strong interaction nearly intact. Moreover, this reaction type exhausts a major part of the total reaction cross section. That is, the bulk of the accessible phase space at these energies is populated by these reactions.