POSSIBLE SIGNATURES OF NUCLEAR-MOLECULAR FORMATION IN O+C SYSTEMS

The interplay between the elastic, quasielastic, and fusion reaction c hannels at energies from just above to well below the Coulomb barrier is investigated for O+C systems. Elastic-scattering and quasielastic-s cattering angular distributions were measured using the kinematic coin cidence technique. Fusion yields were obtained by direct detection of the evaporation residues using a time-of-flight energy spectrometer, a t energies from just above to well below the Coulomb barrier. The fusi on yields differ significantly from previous work, but the present mea surements give barrier parameters consistent with systematics. Compari sons with two-center shell model and coupled-channels predictions show possible indications of nuclear-molecular formation in the elastic, i nelastic, and single-neutron transfer channels.