Eur. Phys. J. A (2024) 60: 159
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-024-01380-w

Letter

Validity of scaling property and iso-centrifugal approximation in quasielastic barrier distribution: the first experimental verification

¹ Nuclear Physics Group, Inter-University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, 110067, New Delhi, India
² Department of Physics and Astrophysics, Delhi University, 110007, Delhi, India
³ Department of Physics, Karnatak University, 580003, Dharwad, India
⁴ Department of Physics, Central University of Jharkhand, 835205, Ranchi, India
⁵ School of Physics and Materials Science, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, 147004, Patiala, India
⁶ Life Science Division, Diamond Light Source Ltd., Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, OX11 0DE, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK
⁷ Department of Physics, Rajdhani College, University of Delhi, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Raja Garden, 110015, New Delhi, India

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Received: 11 March 2024
Accepted: 14 July 2024
Published online: 31 July 2024

Abstract

For the first time, we have simultaneously measured fusion and quasielastic excitation functions for an intermediate mass system for angular momentum, $\ell \sim 0$ using a recoil mass spectrometer. We have extracted barrier distributions using three different sets of data recorded simultaneously for the reaction $_{}^{16}$O+$_{}^{142}$Ce: (a) fusion excitation function from measurement of evaporation residues at angle, ${\theta }_{\text{lab}}=0^{\circ }$, (b) quasielastic excitation function at center of mass scattering angle, ${\theta }_{\text{c.m.}}=\pi$ via measurement of scattered target-like ions at ${\theta }_{\text{lab}}=0^{\circ }$ and (c) quasielastic excitation functions from measurement of scattered projectile-like ions at two large angles. We show that the four barrier distributions yield nearly identical results with a single peak. However, the centroids of the barriers extracted from quasielastic data at large angles are lower by $\sim 600$ keV compared to the same of the barriers extracted from fusion and quasielastic data for $\ell \sim 0$. This is the first experimental verification of the validity of scaling property with respect to $\ell$ and iso-centrifugal approximation in extracting fusion barrier distribution from quasielastic scattering. This work also points to the importance of extracting barrier distribution from quasielastic measurements at ${\theta }_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}=\pi$ for systems for which measuring fusion excitation function with high precision is not feasible.