https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-023-01173-7
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Impact of density dependence of symmetry energy on astrophysical S-factor for heavy-ion fusion reactions
1
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 700064, Kolkata, India
2
Homi Bhabha National Institute, Anushakti Nagar, 400094, Mumbai, India
3
Department of Physics, University Institute of Sciences, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, 140413, Mohali, Punjab, India
4
Department of Physics (H & S), Government Women Engineering College, 305002, Ajmer, India
5
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia
c
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received:
11
July
2023
Accepted:
20
October
2023
Published online:
14
November
2023
Abstract
The slope of symmetry energy at the saturation density (
) as estimated recently from the measured value of neutron skin thickness in 
Pb and 
Ca nuclei overlaps only marginally which leads to the issue of density dependence of symmetry energy unresolved. We have studied the role of density dependence of symmetry energy in the sub-barrier fusion cross-section and the astrophysical S-factor for asymmetric nuclei. The required nucleon densities are generated from different families of non-relativistic and relativistic mean-field models which correspond to a wide range of neutron skin thickness or . The results are presented for the barrier parameters, cross-section, and astrophysical S-factor for several asymmetric nuclei involving O, Ca, Ni, and Sn isotopes. The cross-sections for the neutron-rich nuclei show a strong dependence on the behavior of symmetry energy or the neutron skin thickness. The increase in skin thickness lowers the height of the barrier as well as its width which enhances the values of the S-factor by more than an order of magnitude.
Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
