Angular correlations in ternary fission induced by polarized neutrons

Ternary fission induced by cold polarized neutrons was studied for the two isotopes ²³³U and ²³⁵U at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. In particular two types of angular correlations between the spin of the incoming neutrons and the emission directions of both, the fission fragments (FF) and the ternary particles (TP), were investigated. For FF and TP detectors facing the target at right angles to the neutron beam, first, for longitudinally polarized neutrons a triple correlation between spin and the emission of outgoing particles was explored and, second, for transversally polarized neutrons parity violating asymmetries in the emission of FFs and TPs were analyzed. Nonzero expectation values for the triple correlation were oberserved in the present experiments for the first time.