Microscopic DC-TDHF study of heavy-ion potentials and fusion cross sections

We study heavy-ion fusion reactions at energies near the Coulomb barrier, in particular with neutron-rich radioactive ion beams. Dynamic microscopic calculations are carried out on a three-dimensional lattice using the Density-Constrained Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock (DC-TDHF) method. New results are presented for the $^{132}$Sn+$^{40}$Ca system which are compared to $^{132}$Sn+$^{48}$Ca studied earlier. Our theoretical fusion cross-sections agree surprisingly well with recent data measured at HRIBF. We also study the near- and sub-barrier fusion of $^{24,16}$O on $^{12}$C which is important to determine the composition and heating of the crust of accreting neutron stars.Comment: Talk given by . Volker E. Oberacker at the 11th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA, May 27-June 1, 2012. To appear in the NN2012 Proceedings in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS

Equilibration dynamics and isospin effects in nuclear reactions

We discuss equilibration times and isospin effect for various quantities in low-energy heavy-ion reactions. These include equilibration of mass, isospin, and total kinetic energy (TKE) in quasifission and deep-inelastic reactions. The calculations are performed using the time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory. The influence of shell effects on the equilibration times are also discussed in the context of theoretical and experimental results.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, proceedings of IWM-EC201

Neutron Transfer Dynamics and Doorway to Fusion in Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock Theory

We analyze the details of mass exchange in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier for heavy-ion collisions involving neutron-rich nuclei using the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) theory. We discuss the time-dependence of transfer and show that the potential barriers seen by individual single-particle states can be considerably different than the effective barrier for the two interacting nuclei having a single center-of-mass. For this reason we observe a substantial transfer probability even at energies below the effective barrier.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figure

Effect of Pauli repulsion and transfer on fusion

The effect of the Pauli exclusion principle on the nucleus-nucleus bare potential is studied using a new density-constrained extension of the Frozen-Hartree-Fock (DCFHF) technique. The resulting potentials exhibit a repulsion at short distance. The charge product dependence of this Pauli repulsion is investigated. Dynamical effects are then included in the potential with the density-constrained time-dependent Hartree-Fock (DCTDHF) method. In particular, isovector contributions to this potential are used to investigate the role of transfer on fusion, resulting in a lowering of the inner part of the potential for systems with positive Q-value transfer channels.Comment: Proceedings of an invited talk given at FUSION17, Hobart, Tasmania, AU (20-24 February, 2017

Timescales of quantum equilibration, dissipation and fluctuation in nuclear collisions

Understanding the dynamics of equilibration processes in quantum systems as well as their interplay with dissipation and fluctuation is a major challenge in quantum many-body theory. The timescales of such processes are investigated in collisions of atomic nuclei using fully microscopic approaches. Results from time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) and time-dependent random-phase approximation (TDRPA) calculations are compared for 13 systems over a broad range of energies. The timescale for full mass equilibration ($\sim2\times10^{-20}$s) is found to be much larger than timescales for neutron-to-proton equilibration, kinetic energy and angular momentum dissipations which are on the order of $10^{-21}$s. Fluctuations of mass numbers in the fragments and correlations between their neutron and proton numbers build up within only a few $10^{-21}$s. This indicates that dissipation is basically not impacted by mass equilibration, but is mostly driven by the exchange of nucleons between the fragments.Comment: Letter: 6 pages, 5 figures. Supplemental material (tables): 18 pages. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Cluster model of 12C in density functional theory framework

We employ the constrained density functional theory to investigate cluster phenomena for the $^{12}$C nucleus. The proton and neutron densities are generated from the placement of three $^{4}$He nuclei (alpha particles) geometrically. These densities are then used in a density constrained Hartree-Fock calculation that produces an antisymmetrized state with the same densities through energy minimization. In the calculations no \textit{a priori} analytic form for the single-particle states is assumed and the full energy density functional is utilized. The geometrical scan of the energy landscape provides the ground state of $^{12}$C as an equilateral triangular configuration of three alphas with molecular bond like structures. The use of the nucleon localization function provides further insight to these configurations. One can conclude that these configurations are a hybrid between a pure mean-field and a pure alpha particle condensate. This development could facilitate DFT based fusion calculations with a more realistic $^{12}$C ground state.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.