PHYSICAL REVIEW C 106, 024614 (2022) Fusion studies in 12 C + 182,184,186 W reactions at energies below and near the Coulomb barrier S. Sanila , * A. M. Vinodkumar , † and B. R. S. Babu Department of Physics, University of Calicut, Kerala 673635, India N. Madhavan, S. Nath , J. Gehlot, Rohan Biswas , Chandra Kumar, and Gonika Nuclear Physics Group, Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi 110067, India Anjali Rani , A. Parihari , and Dinesh Viswakarma Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India Shoaib Noor Department of Physics, Thapar University, Patiala 147004, India E. Prasad Department of Physics, School of Physical Sciences, Central University of Kerala, The Aswini Hills, Periya 671320, India (Received 30 April 2022; accepted 26 July 2022; published 23 August 2022) Background: The coupled-channels model has been highly successful in interpreting experimental subbarrier fusion. The statistical model framework has traditionally been used to explain the basic features of composite system de-excitation in the above Coulomb barrier region. However, in 12 C-induced reactions with 182,186 W, measured fusion cross sections are significantly lower than those predicted by various theoretical models and by fusion systematics. Purpose: To investigate the dynamics of heavy ion fusion at energies below and above the Coulomb barrier in the 12 C-induced reactions. Method: A mass spectrometer was used to study the evaporation residues for the 12 C + 182,184,186 W reactions. The measurements ranged from 12% below to 45% above the Coulomb barrier energies. The measured fusion cross sections are compared with coupled channels and statistical model calculations. Results: The measured fusion cross sections for 12 C + 182,184,186 W reactions show reasonably good agreement with coupled-channel calculations. Also, evaporation residue cross sections for 12 C + 182,184,186 W reactions in the present experiment along with the fission cross sections from literature are described by statistical model calculations. Conclusions: We successfully explain the previously reported discrepancy between fusion measurements and calculations based on various theoretical models and by fusion systematics for 12 C + 182,186 W reactions. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024614 I. INTRODUCTION Heavy ion fusion studies can provide important insights into the reaction dynamics and decay properties of excited compound nuclei (CN) [1–11]. Nucleons are exchanged be- tween the target and projectile during the mechanism of compound nucleus formation. As a result, energy and an- gular momentum are transferred from the relative motion to the intrinsic degrees of freedom of the composite sys- tem [12]. The formed compound nucleus is in a highly excited state and decays via the emission of light particles and γ -rays with competition from binary fission processes. Evaporation residue (ER) measurement is a powerful method * sanila_dop@uoc.ac.in † amv@uoc.ac.in for studying fusion processes in mass asymmetric projectile- target systems. Fission fragments must be taken into account when calculating total fusion cross sections and understand- ing the dynamics of the CN de-excitation. The statistical model framework has typically been used to explain the de-excitation of the composite system with the inclusion of fission processes. Even though the fundamental concepts of composite system de-excitation are relatively well understood by statistical model calculations, some discrepancies and/or ambiguities remain [13–15]. It is well known that the one-dimensional potential barrier penetration model (1D-BPM) is quite successful in repro- ducing the measured fusion cross sections at above barrier energies. The increase in subbarrier fusion cross sections in comparison to 1D-BPM is well explained by coupled-channel calculations, which include the coupling of low-lying states and the static deformation and/or vibrational degrees of 2469-9985/2022/106(2)/024614(11) 024614-1 ©2022 American Physical Society