Abstract
We develop a unified nuclear potential for the description of large-scale nuclear collective motion and find that it satisfactorily reproduces experimental data for heavy-ion elastic scattering, fusion, fission, and ground-state masses. Obtained by generalizing the modified liquid-drop model so that two semi-infinite slabs of constant-density nuclear matter have minimum energy at zero separation, this potential is given in terms of a double volume integral of a Yukawa-plus-exponential folding function. For heavy nuclear systems the resulting heavy-ion interaction potential is similar to the proximity potential of Swiatecki and co-workers. However, for light nuclear systems our potential lies slightly below the proximity potential at all nuclear separations. For heavy nuclei fission barriers calculated with our Yukawa-plus-exponential model are similar to those calculated with the liquid-drop model. However, for light nuclei the finite range of the nuclear force and the diffuse nuclear surface lower the fission barriers relative to those calculated with the liquid-drop model. Use of a Wigner term proportional to in the nuclear mass formula resolves the major part of the anomaly between nuclear radii derived from elastic electron scattering on the one hand and from ground-state masses and fission-barrier heights on the other.
NUCLEAR REACTIONS +, +, +; calculated heavy-ion interaction potential. +, MeV; calculated elastic-scattering angular distribution. +, +, +; calculated compound-nucleus cross section. Calculated fission-barrier heights and ground-state masses for nuclei throughout Periodic Table. Nuclear potential energy of deformation, liquid-drop model, droplet model, modified liquid-drop model, Yukawa-plus-exponential model, proximity potential, Woods-Saxon potential, double-folding potential, optical model, ingoing-wave boundary condition, single-particle corrections, Strutinsky's method.
- Received 4 April 1979
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.20.992
©1979 American Physical Society