From microscopic to macroscopic dynamics in mean-field theory: effect of neutron skin on fusion barrier and dissipation

Abstract

In this work, we introduce a new method to reduce the microscopic mean-field theory to a classical macroscopic dynamics during the initial stage of fusion reactions. We show that TDHF (Time-dependent Hartree-Fock) could be a useful tool to gain information on fusion barriers as well as on one-body dissipation effects. We apply the mean-field theory to the case of head-on reaction between $^{16}$O and $^{16,22,24,28}$O in order to quantify the effect of neutron skin on fusion. We show that the determination of fusion barrier requires, in addition to a precise knowledge of the relative distance between the center of mass of the two fusing nuclei, the introduction of an additional collective coordinate that explicitly breaks the neutron-proton symmetry. In this context, we estimate the position, height and diffuseness of the barrier as well as the one-body friction and show that a global enhancement of the fusion cross-section is expected in neutron rich nuclei.