Coulomb Distortion in Heavy-Ion Reactions

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Abstract
The dynamics of nuclear distortion is studied for two spherical nuclei under the influence of their mutual Coulomb interactions. Both the quadrupole and the octupole degrees of freedom are considered. Realistic stiffness and effective-mass parameters are employed. It is found that the energy needed to bring the two nuclei into contact increases as a result of the distortions. However, in the most favorable case, the increase is only a few percent. This is much smaller than previous estimates using either the liquid-drop model or the adiabatic model.