Revisiting the symmetric reactions for synthesis of super-heavy nuclei of Z⩾120
Abstract Extensive efforts have been made experimentally to reach nuclei in the super-heavy mass region of Z = 110 and above with suitable choices of projectile and target nuclei. The cross sections for production of these nuclei are seen to be in the range of a few picobarn or less, and pose great experimental challenges. Theoretically, there have been extensive calculations for highly asymmetric (hot-fusion) and moderately asymmetric (cold-fusion) collisions and only a few theoretical studies are available for near-symmetric collisions to estimate the cross sections for production of super-heavy nuclei. In the present article, we revisit the symmetric heavy ion reactions with suitable combinations of projectile and target nuclei in the rare-earth region, that will lead to super-heavy nuclei of Z ⩾ 120 with measurable fusion cross sections.