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Fusion reactions with the one-neutron halo nucleus (15)C
M Alcorta1, K E Rehm, B B Back
1Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
Abstract:
The structure of (15)C, with an s(1/2) neutron weakly bound to a closed-neutron shell nucleus (14)C, makes it a prime candidate for a one-neutron halo nucleus. We have for the first time studied the cross section for the fusion-fission reaction (15)C+(232)Th at energies in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier and compared it to the yield of the neighboring (14)C+(232)Th system measured in the same experiment. At sub-barrier energies, an enhancement of the fusion yield by factors of 2-5 was observed for (15)C, while the cross sections for (14)C match the trends measured for (12,13)C.
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