A unified approach is used to describe quasielastic and fusion processes in heavy-ion reactions at near barrier energies. The spin distributions for fusion are used in conjunction with transition-state theory to calculate fission fragment angular distributions. Results for the reaction ${}_{}{}^{16}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{O}$ + ${}_{}{}^{208}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Pb}$ show that when transfer contributions are small, satisfactory agreement with data is obtained. The role of fragment anisotropy as a useful probe of entrance channel effects at energies close to the barrier is pointed out.

• Received 19 March 1984

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.333