Formation of 258Rf in drift plus diffusion dynamics

Abstract

We present calculations on the formation of 258Rf in the reaction 50Ti+208Pb within the Langevin framework. The initital stage after contact of the colliding nuclei is dominated by a drift in the center-of-mass direction, while the subsequent process of forming a compound nucleus is diffusion dominated. The probability for the composite system to diffuse over the inner saddle is obtained by performing Metropolis random walks in a five-dimensional potential-energy landscape.