https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01725-z
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Suppression in compound nuclear fusion at low projectile energies
1
Department of Physics, Central University of Jharkhand, 835222, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
2
Department of Physics, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, 834008, Ranchi, India
3
Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 730000, Lanzhou, China
4
Department of Applied Sciences, Nims University Rajasthan, 303121, Jaipur, India
5
Department of Physics, School of Sciences, Cluster University of Srinagar, 190008, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India
6
Department of Physics, G. F. (P.G.) College, 242001, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
7
Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, 202002, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
8
Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, 110067, New Delhi, India
a
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Received:
25
August
2025
Accepted:
21
October
2025
Published online:
4
November
2025
Abstract
In this study, the excitation functions of evaporation residues produced in the 
O + 
Sm system have been measured through offline 
ray spectrometry. The statistical model code PACE-4, ALICE91, and EMPIRE 3.2.2 were utilized to distinguish the evaporation residues populated through the compound and non-compound nuclear fusion processes. For a comprehensive investigation of fusion suppression and its correlation with the charge of the target and the 
value of the projectile, the compound nuclear fusion cross sections of various projectile-target combinations were analyzed within the framework of the Universal Fusion Function (UFF) reduction method. The study revealed that the measured fusion functions of various systems were suppressed compared to the UFF, where the degree of suppression was dependent on the projectile’s value. Besides that, an exponential increase in the suppression was further observed with increasing values, while the target charge had a marginal effect. A generalized formula based on present study has been proposed to estimate fusion suppression of different systems as a function of value of the projectile. The above observations indicates that the involvement of non-compound nuclear reactions leads to a reduction in the compound nuclear fusion cross section at energies above the Coulomb barrier. This is primarily attributed to the loss of flux in the compound nuclear fusion channel, which is offset by an increased flux in non-compound fusion processes.
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Communicated by Alessia Di Pietro.
Present address: Department of Physics, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi, 834008, India
Present address: Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Present address: Department of Applied Sciences, Nims University Rajasthan, Jaipur, 303121, India
Present address: Department of Physics, School of Sciences, Cluster University of Srinagar, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, 190008, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
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.
