Fusion barrier distributions in systems with finite excitation energy

An eigenchannel approach to heavy-ion fusion reactions is exact only when the excitation energy of the intrinsic motion is zero. In order to take into account effects of finite excitation energy, we introduce an energy dependence to weight factors in the eigenchannel approximation. Using the two channel problem, we show that the weight factors are slowly changing functions of incident energy. This suggests that the concept of the fusion barrier distribution still holds to a good approximation even when the excitation energy of the intrinsic motion is finite. A transition to the adiabatic tunneling, where the coupling leads to a static potential renormalization, is also discussed.