Examination of high-resolution, experimental fusion excitation functions for ${}^{16,17,18}\mathrm{O}+{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ reveals a remarkable irregular behavior that is rooted in the structure of both the colliding nuclei and the quasimolecular composite system. The impact of the $\ell$-dependent fusion barriers is assessed using a time-dependent Hartree-Fock model, viewed as a mean-field reference. Barrier penetrabilities, taken directly from a density-constrained calculation, provide a significantly improved description of the experimental data as compared to the standard Hill-Wheeler approach. The remaining deviations between the parameter-free theoretical mean-field predictions and experimental fusion cross sections are exposed and discussed.

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• Low & intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions
• Models & methods for nuclear reactions
• Nuclear fusion
• Nuclear many-body theory
• Nuclear reactions