Peculiarities of Nuclear Fusion in Synthesis of Superheavy Elements

The small probabilities of synthesis of new superheavy elements at GSI (Darmstadt, Germany), Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia), and RIKEN (Wako, Japan) during the last decade stimulate the experimental and theoretical studies of the nuclear reaction mechanism. 1– 4 In preparation of these experiments, the main aim is to reach maximum cross sections of the yield of evaporation residues (ER) as a result of the de-excitation of the heated compound nucleus which is formed in complete fusion of the projectile and target nuclei. Because the ER excitation function in the synthesis of superheavy elements has very narrow width for “cold fusion” reactions (5–10 MeV) with 208 Pb and 209 Bi targets 5 and the width of the “hot fusion” reactions with 48 Ca projectile on actinide tar