Enhanced nucleon transfer in tip collisions of $^{238}$U+$^{124}$Sn

Abstract

Multinucleon transfer processes in low-energy heavy ion reactions have attracted increasing interest in recent years aiming at production of new neutron-rich isotopes. Clearly, it is an imperative task to further develop understanding of underlying reaction mechanisms to lead experiments to success. In this paper, from systematic time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations for the $^{238}$U+$^{124}$Sn reaction, it is demonstrated that transfer dynamics depend strongly on the orientations of $^{238}$U, quantum shells, and collision energies. Two important conclusions are obtained: (i) Experimentally observed many-proton transfer from $^{238}$U to $^{124}$Sn can be explained by a multinucleon transfer mechanism governed by enhanced neck evolution in tip collisions; (ii) Novel reaction dynamics are observed in tip collisions at energies substantially above the Coulomb barrier, where a number of nucleons are transferred from $^{124}$Sn to $^{238}$U, producing transuranium nuclei as primary reaction products, that could be a means to synthesize superheavy nuclei. Both results indicate the importance of the neck (shape) evolution dynamics, which are sensitive to the orientations, shell effects and collision energies, for exploring possible pathways to produce new unstable nuclei.