Vol. 48 (2017) ACTA PHYSICA POLONICA B No 3 INFLUENCE OF POSITIVE Q-VALUE NEUTRON TRANSFER COUPLING ON FUSION ENHANCEMENT IN 28 Si+ 154 Sm REACTION * ** Gurpreet Kaur a , B.R. Behera a , A. Jhingan b , R. Dubey a Meenu Thakur a , Priya Sharma a , Ruchi Mahajan a Tathagata Banerjee b , Khushboo c , N. Saneesh b , A. Kumar a S. Mandal c , B.K. Nayak d , A. Saxena d , P. Sugathan b , N. Rowley e a Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India b Inter-University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India c Department of Physics and Astrophysics, Delhi University, New Delhi, India d Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India e Institut de Physique Nucléaire, UMR 8608, CNRS-IN2P3 and Université de Paris Sud, 91406 Orsay Cedex, France (Received February 9, 2017) Recently, the barrier distribution (BD) for the 28 Si+ 154 Sm system has been measured by our group using the quasi-elastic scattering technique. Here, we present the results of coupled-channel calculations performed to reproduce the measured BD. The inelastic excitation of target and projec- tile alone explains the experimentally observed BD very well, even though the system studied has large positive Q-value for neutron transfer channels. Hence, the results reveal no significant influence of positive Q-value neutron transfer channels on fusion enhancement for the 28 Si+ 154 Sm system. DOI:10.5506/APhysPolB.48.619 1. Introduction The nuclear intrinsic degrees of freedom such as inelastic excitation, neu- tron transfer, static or dynamic deformation get coupled to the relative mo- tion of the interacting nuclei and affect the fusion dynamics. Experimen- tal signatures of these coupling have been observed in fusion cross-section measurements via fusion enhancement and structure in fusion barrier dis- tribution (BD) [1]. Comparison of these experimental results with coupled- channel predictions has established the role of various couplings in the heavy- ion fusion mechanism [1]. However, even among these couplings, the role of neutron transfer is not yet well-understood. * Presented at the Zakopane Conference on Nuclear Physics “Extremes of the Nuclear Landscape”, Zakopane, Poland, August 28–September 4, 2016. ** Published without the proofs. (619)