Evidence of dynamical dipole excitation in the fusion-evaporation of the Ca 40 + Sm 152 heavy system

The excitation of the dynamical dipole mode along the fusion path was investigated for the first time in the formation of a heavy compound nucleus in the A∼190 mass region. The compound nucleus was formed at identical conditions of excitation energy and spin from two entrance channels: the charge-asymmetric 40Ca+152Sm and the nearly charge-symmetric 48Ca+144Sm at Elab=11 and 10.1 MeV/nucleon, respectively. High-energy γ rays and light charged particles were measured in coincidence with evaporation residues by means of the MEDEA multidetector array (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy) coupled to four parallel plate avalanche counters. The charged particle multiplicity spectra and angular distributions were used to pin down the average excitation energy, the average mass, and the average charge of the compound nucleus. The γ-ray multiplicity spectrum and angular distribution related to the nearly charge-symmetric channel were employed to obtain new data on the giant dipole resonance in the compound nucleus. The dynamical dipole mode excitation in the charge-asymmetric channel was evidenced, in a model-independent way, by comparing the γ-ray multiplicity spectra and angular distributions of the two entrance channels with each other. Calculations of the dynamical dipole mode in the 40Ca+152Sm channel, based on a collective bremsstrahlung analysis of the reaction dynamics, are presented. Possible interesting implications in the superheavy-element quest are discussed.