We study in detail the barrier distributions extracted from large-angle quasielastic scattering of heavy ions at energies near the Coulomb barrier. Using a closed-form expression for scattering from a single barrier, we compare the quasielastic barrier distribution with the corresponding test function for fusion. We examine the isocentrifugal approximation in coupled-channels calculations of quasielastic scattering and find that for backward angles it works well, justifying the concept of a barrier distribution for scattering processes. This method offers an interesting tool for investigating unstable nuclei. We illustrate this for the ${}^{32}\mathrm{Mg}+{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ reaction, where the quadrupole collectivity of the neutron-rich ${}^{32}\mathrm{Mg}$ remains to be clarified experimentally.

• Received 18 February 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.69.054610