Nuclear structure effects on over-barrier fusion reactions investigated with a new phenomenological model

We investigate the occurrence of nuclear structure effects in the cross section of heavy-ion fusion reactions at energies above the Coulomb barrier. To this end, we initially develop a universal phenomenological model capable to reproduce, with an unprecedented accuracy, all previously published experimental fusion excitation functions with a few parameters. The new model, which foresees exclusively charge, mass, and energy of the colliding systems, shows a clear saturation of the critical angular momentum and avoids analytical non-regularities. The predictions of the newly developed model are then inspected to pin down residual discrepancies with the data, which could be ascribed to the structure of the colliding systems. In this framework, we obtain the following findings: (1) for the first time, we suggest an anomaly in the optimum value of the fusion cross section for systems having nearly-zero fusion Q-values; (2) we point out the occurrence of shell closure effects in the fusion of light systems; (3) we suggest that shell effects are washed-out at relative velocities vrel≳0.07c; (4) in the higher energy part of the fusion excitation function, the cross section for colliding systems involving fluorine or neon isotopes impinging on 2p3/2-1f5/2 nuclei is suppressed, possibly due to the occurrence of α-clustering effects enhancing α-transfer reactions.