Barrier for cold-fusion production of superheavy elements

Ichikawa, Takatoshi; Iwamoto, Akira; Mller, P.*; Sierk, A. J.*

We estimate the effective fusion barrier in the entrance channel in cold-fusion reactions in a model where the projectile deformation and quadrupole zero-point vibrational energy are taken into account. The effective fusion-barrier height is defined as the barrier energy at the target and projectile separation distance where the system becomes unstable with respect to projectile deformation. We also calculate five-dimensional potential-energy surfaces for the single compound system. For heavy systems the fusion barrier at touching becomes lower than the fission barrier just beyond the ground state of the compound system. Except for reactions in which the projectile is doubly magic or near doubly magic, the calculated quantities are consistent with the observed optimal energies for evaporation-residue formation.