Near-Barrier Fusion of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>Sn</mml:mi><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mi>Ni</mml:mi></mml:math>and<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>Te</mml:mi><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mi>Ni</mml:mi></mml:math>Systems: Examining the Correlation between Nucleon Transfer and Fusion Enhancement

The fusion excitation functions for radioactive (132)Sn + (58)Ni and stable (130)Te + (58,64)Ni were measured at energies near the Coulomb barrier. The coupling of transfer channels in heavy-ion fusion was examined through a comparison of Sn + Ni and Te + Ni systems, which have large variations in the number of positive Q-value nucleon transfer channels. In contrast with previous experimental comparisons, where increased sub-barrier fusion cross sections were observed in systems with positive Q-value neutron transfer channels, the reduced excitation functions were equivalent for the different Sn + Ni and Te + Ni systems. The present results suggest a dramatically different influence of positive Q-value transfer channels on the fusion process for the Sn + Ni and Te + Ni systems.