Influence of halo single-neutron transfer on near barrier $$^{15}$$C + $$^{12}$$C total fusion

A recent comparison of the average fusion cross section, $$\left\langle \sigma _\mathrm {F}\right\rangle $$ , for energies just above the Coulomb barrier for the $$^{12-15}$$ C + $$^{12}$$ C systems found that the behaviour as a function of projectile neutron excess could not be satisfactorily explained by static barrier penetration model calculations and suggested that the neutron dynamics plays an important role. In this work we demonstrate that the ( $$^{15}$$ C, $$^{14}$$ C) single neutron transfer has a significant influence on the above barrier $$^{15}$$ C + $$^{12}$$ C total fusion, although not quite in the way expected since it leads to a reduction in the cross section, contrary to the trend in the measured $$\left\langle \sigma _\mathrm {F}\right\rangle $$ . However, this result underlines the danger of ignoring the effect of neutron transfer reactions on fusion in systems involving neutron halo nuclei.