Recent developments in heavy-ion fusion reactions

In this review the main advances in heavy-ion fusion research that have taken place over the last decade are addressed. During this period, experimental studies have been extended to deep sub-barrier energies to reveal the unexpected phenomenon of fusion hindrance. The coupled-channels descriptions have been refined to include the effects of nucleon transfer and to account for the fusion hindrance in terms of the ion-ion potential in the strongly overlapping region. Substantial progress has been made in time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory to the point that this approach now can make parameter-free predictions of heavy-ion fusion excitation functions. As several heavy-ion fusion reactions are of crucial…