Role of the Skyrme tensor force in heavy-ion fusion

We make use of the Skyrme e ff ective nuclear interaction within the time-dependent Hartree-Fock framework to assess the e ff ect of inclusion of the tensor terms of the Skyrme interaction on the fusion window of the 16 O– 16 O reaction. We find that the lower fusion threshold, around the barrier, is quite insensitive to these details of the force, but the higher threshold, above which the nuclei pass through each other, changes by several MeV between di ff erent tensor parametrisations. The results suggest that eventually fusion properties may become part of the evaluation or fitting process for e ff ective nuclear interaction