Unraveling the reaction mechanisms leading to partial fusion of weakly bound nuclei

Collisions between complex nuclei may give rise to their total or partial fusion. The latter case is found experimentally to gain importance when one of the colliding nuclei is weakly bound. It has been commonly assumed that the partial fusion mechanism is a two-step process, whose first step is the dissociation of the weakly bound nucleus, followed by the capture of one of the fragments. To assess this interpretation, we present the first implementation of the three-body model of inclusive breakup proposed in the 1980s by Austern et al. [Phys. Rep. 154, 125 (1987)] that accounts for both the direct, one-step, partial fusion and the two-step mechanism proceeding via the projectile continuum states. Contrary to the widely assumed picture, we find that, at least for the investigated cases, the partial fusion is largely dominated by the direct capture from the projectile ground-state.
Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Letters