Mass-Asymmetric Barriers from Excitation Functions for Complex-Fragment Emission

Abstract

The conditional saddle-point heights (conditional barriers) that preside over the emission of complex fragments ($Z=2\ensuremath{-}11$) from compound nuclei have been obtained from the excitation functions of individual fragments in the reaction $^{3}\mathrm{He}$+$^{\mathrm{nat}}\mathrm{Ag}$. The magnitudes of the barriers and their dependence on mass asymmetry may be used to verify important features of the potential-energy surface including shell effects at the conditional saddle and to verify the validity of the liquid-drop model and recent refinements such as finite-range effects and surface diffuseness.