Effect of charge polarization on the coulomb barrier for cold-fusion reactions

Ichikawa, Takatoshi; Iwamoto, Akira

We estimate the decrease of the Coulomb-barrier height between colliding parters due to charge polarizations in the entrance channel for cold-fusion reactions. Since the Coulomb-repulsion force increases with increasing the proton numbers of the target and projectile such as cold-fusion reactions, it is expected that the charge distribution of the colliding nuclei is changed to some extent. The resulting charge distribution induced by this polarization decreases the interacting Coulomb energy between the colliding partners, whereas their own self energies increase due to the increase of the symmetry energy. We assume that the resulting charge displacements between protons and neutrons are the sum of the surface- and volume-charge components and estimate the extent of the charge polarization with the self energy on the basis of the droplet model. We show the difference between the charge polarization of light and heavy nuclei and the decrease of the Coulomb barrier height for synthesizing superheavy elements.