DESCRIPTION OF NUCLEAR-STRUCTURE EFFECTS IN SUBBARRIER FUSION BY THE INTERACTING BOSON MODEL

Recent theoretical developments in using the interacting boson model t o describe nuclear structure effects in fusion reactions below the Cou lomb barrier are reviewed. Methods dealing with linear and all-order c oupling between the nuclear excitations and the translational motion a re discussed, and the latter is found to lead to a better description of the barrier distribution data. A systematic study of the available data (cross sections, barrier and spin distributions) in rare-earth nu clei is presented.