Impact of Reaction Cross Section on the Unified Description of Fusion Excitation Function

A systematics of over 300 complete and incomplete fusion cross section data points covering energies beyond the barrier for fusion is presented. Owing to a usual reduction of the fusion cross sections by the total reaction cross sections and an original scaling of energy, a fusion excitation function common to all the data points is established. A universal description of the fusion exci- tation function relying on basic nuclear concepts is proposed and its dependence on the reaction cross section used for the cross section normalization is discussed. The pioneering empirical model proposed by Bass in 1974 to describe the complete fusion cross sections is rather successful for the incomplete fusion too and provides cross section predictions in satisfactory agreement with the observed universality of the fusion excitation function. The sophisticated microscopic transport DYWAN model not only reproduces the data but also predicts that fusion reaction mechanism disappears due to weakened nuclear stopping power around the Fermi energy.