Astrophysical S-factors for fusion reactions involving C, O, Ne and Mg isotopes

Using the Sao Paulo potential and the barrier penetration formalism we have calculated the astrophysical factor S(E) for 946 fusion reactions involving stable and neutron-rich isotopes of C, O, Ne, and Mg for center-of-mass energies E varying from 2 MeV to 18-30 MeV (covering the range below and above the Coulomb barrier). We have parameterized the energy dependence S(E) by an accurate universal 9-parameter analytic expression and present tables of fit parameters for all the reactions. We also discuss the reduced 3-parameter version of our fit which is highly accurate at energies below the Coulomb barrier, and outline the procedure for calculating the reaction rates. The results can be easily converted to thermonuclear or pycnonuclear reaction rates to simulate various nuclear burning phenomena, in particular, stellar burning at high temperatures and nucleosynthesis in high density environments.

Non-local effects on the heavy-ion fusion at sub-barrier energies

We investigate the effect of Pauli non-locality in the heavy-ion optical potential on sub-barrier fusion reactions. The S~{a}o Paulo potential, which takes into account the Pauli non-locality and has been widely used in analyzing elastic scattering, has also recently been applied to heavy-ion fusion. However, the approximation employed in deriving the S~{a}o Paulo potential, based on the Perey-Buck semi-classical treatment of neutron induced reactions, must be assessed for charged particles tunneling through a barrier. It is the purpose of this note to look into this question. We consider the widely studied system $^{16}$O + $^{208}$Pb at energies that span the barrier region from 10 MeV below to 10 MeV above. It seems that the non-locality plays a minor role. We find the S~{a}o Paulo potential to be quite adequate throughout the region.