Adiabatic internuclear potentials obtained by energy variation with the internuclear-distance constraint

We propose a method to obtain adiabatic internuclear potentials via energy variation with the intercluster-distance constraint. The adiabatic $^{16}$O + $^{16,18}$O potentials obtained by the proposed method are applied to investigate the effects of valence neutrons in $^{16}$O + $^{18}$O sub-barrier fusions. Sub-barrier fusion cross sections of $^{16}$O + $^{18}$O are enhanced more compared to those of $^{16}$O + $^{16}$O because of distortion of valence neutrons in $^{18}$O.