Fusion cross sections have been measured for the system O-16 + Nd-144
at bombarding energies in the range 67 MeV less-than-or-equal-to E(lab
) less-than-or-equal-to 90 MeV by detecting directly evaporation resid
ues in Si detectors and in the range 60 MeV less-than-or-equal-to E(la
b) less-than-or-equal-to 75 MeV by off-line detection of the K x rays
emitted by the radioactive evaporation residues and daughters. In orde
r to obtain the spin distributions in the compound system gamma-ray mu
ltiplicity distributions for the most important neutron evaporation ch
annels were also measured using a 4pi BaF2 array, in conjunction with
Ge detectors. Results are compared with calculations based on models t
hat consider fluctuations in barrier height due to ground-state zero-p
oint vibrations as well as couplings to various inelastic and transfer
channels.