Deformation valleys through quasi-molecular and toroidal shapes

Abstract

Within a liquid-drop model including the proximity energy, the mass asymmetry and an accurate radius; the deformation valley through compact and creviced shapes seems compatible with most of the experimental data: symmetric and asymmetric fusion and fission barriers, critical angular momenta of light nuclei, half-lives of radioactive nuclei emitting heavy clusters, stability of rotational super and hyperdeformed states. In heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies, the formation of evanescent toroidal heavy systems and their fragmentation in a plane seems possible.