What does really mean the "barrier distribution function" derived from backward angle quasi-elastic scattering

Abstract

The so called "barrier distribution" derived from quasi-elastic backscattering of heavy ions gives us, in fact, an information about the "reaction threshold distribution". For light nuclear systems these distributions are quite close, but for heavy ones (when interaction of nuclei becomes more and more complicated and the potential barrier can disappear at all) they may significantly differ. The same should hold also for weakly bound neutron rich projectiles, for which the neutron transfer and break-up reaction channels play an important role at near-barrier energies. This is not a terminology problem but important finding, because experiments on measurement of the backward angle quasi-elastic scattering for deriving the "barrier distributions" for heavy nuclear systems (which may be used for the production of superheavy elements) are planned to be performed in several laboratories.