The study of prompt and delayed muon induced fission

Mass yield and total kinetic energy release (TKE) distributions of fragments from prompt and delayed muon induced fission, separately, have been measured for the isotopes²³⁵U,²³⁸U,²³⁷Np and²⁴²Pu. The distributions from prompt muon induced fission are compared with the corresponding distributions from hadronic reactions and from spontaneous fission (s.f.). The distributions from the delayed muonic fission processes are compared to the distributions for neutron and proton-induced fission. No mass distributions measured in the prompt muonic fission process show any signature, which can be attributed to the presence of the muon. Differences observed between the TKE distributions of prompt muon induced and hadron induced fission can be explained by the screening effect of the negative charge of the muon bound in the orbit of one of the fission fragments. The observed yield of symmetric muon induced fission was found to be defined merely by the value of the excitation energy.