Systematics of the (d,Li6) Reaction andαClustering in Heavy Nuclei

Data for the $\alpha$-particle pickup reaction ($d$, ${}_{}{}^6{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$) have been obtained at 35-MeV bombarding energy for even-even nuclei from ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$ to ${}_{}{}^{238}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{U}$. The cross sections for the transitions to the ground states decrease approximately as $\frac{1}{{A_t}^3}$ where $A_t$ is the target mass. $\alpha$-particle transfer probabilities have been extracted from the data and are found to be substantially enhanced in heavy nuclei away from shell closures, particularly for deformed nuclei near $A\approx 150$. $\alpha$-particle correlations appear to be related to two-nucleon pairing effects.