Fusion Suppression in Super Heavy Element Formation via
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 062501 – Published 4 August, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/dkm5-xt6d
Abstract
The precise quantification of fusion suppression in heavy-projectile induced reactions is obscured by dominant noncompound processes, limited data, and uncertain models. Mass-total kinetic energy (MTKE) distributions for the reaction were measured at three beam energies, , 271, and 278 MeV. The fission fragments were detected using the newly developed TOSCA spectrometer setup. This Letter reveals, for the first time, two asymmetric mass modes at (complementary ), and u (complementary ), likely associated with the spherical shell and the deformed shells, respectively. At the lowest energy, the symmetric mode exhibits a narrow, super-short-like width and high correlated TKE caused likely by , shells. The fusion probability () from multi-Gaussian fits to gated mass (and TKE) distributions using a refined tail-subtraction approach to remove the quasifission background remains robust despite model dependence. peaks near the barrier and decreases on either side, with a slower decrease at the above-barrier energy, differing from the sub-barrier fusion enhancement reported in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 232503 (2019)] and indicating an open question for further study.