Photofission accompanied by pion emission

For the nuclear-fission process induced by photons of energy in the range 150 < E_γ < 600 MeV and accompanied by pion emission, the total cross section; the angular and differential distributions of pions; the excitation-energy, mass, and charge distributions of compound nuclei; and the mass distribution of the fission fragments are predicted on the basis of the cascade-evaporation-fission model. These features are compared for the cases of nuclear fission induced by photons and protons of initial energy in the same range.     

T-odd asymmetries in the cold neutron-induced ternary fission of polarized target nuclei

T-odd asymmetries in the ternary fission of oriented target nuclei, induced by cold unpolarized neutrons and accompanied by emission of ?? particles, are described using quantum fission theory. The differential cross section for the reaction in question is obtained using the spin density matrix of the target nucleus by considering the Coriolis interaction of the spin of a fissioning compound nucleus with the orbital momentum of an ?? particle and interference from the fission amplitudes of various pairs of neutron resonances excited in the compound nucleus as the target nucleus captures a cold neutron. It is shown that in the case under consideration, T-odd asymmetries occur only at odd values of the target nucleus??s order of orientation. It is demonstrated that the concepts of TRI and ROT asymmetries are preserved while the absolute values of the coefficients for these asymmetries can change noticeably in comparison to the similar coefficients for the fission of unoriented target nuclei induced by cold polarized neutrons.     

Cross section for the subthreshold fission of 236U

The cross section for ²³⁶U fission in the neutron-energy range E _n = 0.001–20 keV was measured by using the INR RAS (Institute of Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) LSDS-100 neutron spectrometer of the lead slowing-down spectrometer type. The resonance fission areas of the resonances at 5.45 eV and 1.28 keV were found, and the fission widths of these resonances were evaluated. The cross section for the ²³⁸U(n, f) fission process was measured, and the threshold sensitivity of the LSDS-100 to small values of fission cross sections was estimated. The well-known intermediate structure in the cross section for the neutron-induced subbarrier fission of ²³⁶U was confirmed.     

Induced nuclear fission accompanied by pion emission

Basic features of the nuclear-fission process induced by protons of incident energy in the range 150<E _p<600 MeV and accompanied by pion emission are predicted on the basis of the cascade-evaporation-fission model. Specific calculations are performed for the total cross section; and the angular and double-differential distributions of pions; excitation-energy,mass number, and charge-number distributions of compound nuclei; and the mass-energy distributions of fission fragments. Various lines of possible experimental investigations into this fission channel are discussed, including searches for the pionic channel of nuclear decay induced by protons of energy close to the meson-production threshold, advancements to the energy region E _p<100 MeV in order to study of new mechanisms of pion production in nuclear fission, and an extension of investigations to the case of nuclear fission accompanied by kaon emission.     

Fragmentation of the total cross section in the reaction16O+208Pb

The fragmentation of the total reaction cross section was investigated for¹⁶O +²⁰⁸Pb atE _c.m.=84 MeV andE _c.m.=92 MeV. Total cross sections for the inelastic, transfer and fission channels were measured. The sum of the inelastic and transfer channels accounts for 30% of the total reaction cross section; the residual strength is found in a compoundfission process.     

Measurement of fast neutron induced fission cross section of thorium using Lexan plastic track detector

Fission-track registration characteristics of Lexan solid state nuclear track detectors have been used to measure the fast neutron induced fission cross section of²³²Th. The fast neutrons (?14.2MeV) were produced with the help of an AN-400 model Van-de-Graaff accelerator at Banaras Hindu University laboratory using³H(²H,n)⁴He reaction and were used to irradiate the fissile target deposited on the plastic detector. The track densityT, registered on the plastic detector is related to the fission cross sectionσ _f, through the relationT=knσ _føt wheren is the number of fissile atoms per cm² in the deposit, ø is the neutron flux,k is fission track registration efficiency andt is the time of irradiation. The fission cross sectionσ _f of²³²Th, relative to the well measured fission cross section of²³⁸U, was found to be 0.36±0.04 barn.     

P-odd asymmetries for the binary fission of oriented target nuclei, induced by cold polarized neutrons

P-odd asymmetries in binary fission of oriented target nuclei induced by cold polarized neutrons are described for the first time using methods of the quantum theory of fission. A spin matrix of the compound nucleus density is constructed with allowance for the interference of the fission amplitudes of various pairs of neutron resonances excited in the given nucleus during the capture of a cold polarized neutron by the oriented target nucleus. In the differential cross sections for this reaction we obtain not only P-odd T-even correlations with the angular dependence different from that of the earlier investigated correlations in the fission of unoriented target nuclei by polarized neutrons but also P-odd T-odd correlations that do not occur in the fission of unoriented target nuclei by polarized neutrons and oriented target nuclei by unpolarized neutrons.     

Fission studies of gold induced by (1665 MeV) π- using a CR-39 detector

The fission cross section and fission probability of ¹⁹⁷Au, induced by (1665 MeV) π^-, have been studied using CR-39 track detectors. A 4π-geometry was used to count track statistics. A beam of negative pions of 1665 MeV was produced at AGS of Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, and allowed to fall normally on the stack. Two detectors from the stack were scanned for fission fragment tracks after etching in 6N NaOH at 70℃. The statistics of fission fragment tracks in both detectors were obtained. It was found that there was a marked asymmetry of registered tracks with respect to the forward and backward hemispheres. This asymmetry could be partly accounted for on the basis of momentum transfer to the struck nucleus. On the basis of counting statistics fission cross section was measured, and fission probability was determined by dividing the fission cross section with the reaction cross section. The fission cross-section and fission probability were compared with the computed values using the cascade-exciton model code CEM95.     

Fission Fragment Angular Correlation in the Reaction Induced by 84.0MeV 16O Bombarded 238U

Fission fragment angular distribution and angular correlation in the reaction induced by 84.0MeV ¹⁶O bombarded ²³⁸U have been measured by using two position-sensitive PPAC with large area.Transfer fission has been removed from total fission using fission fragment angular correlation technique.The contribution to the total fission cross section arising from transfer is about 10%.The anisotropy of fission fragment for transfer-fission is rather small,thus the removal of the transfer fission has little effect on the total fragment angular distribution.Indeed the anisotropy becomes larger by about 5% and anomalously anisotropies still persist.     

Population of the 236U shape isomer in a photonuclear reaction

A fission isomer with a half-life of 115 ± 5 ns and a yield ratio Y_iso/Y_prompt = (2.02 ± 0.16) × 10^?5 was observed in bremsstrahlung-induced fission of natural uranium. The isomer is ascribed to ²³⁶U populated via a ²³⁸U(γ, 2n) reaction. The integrated cross section for isomeric fission is determined to be σ_int = 32 ± 6 μb MeV. Comparing this value with a calculated total isomer production cross section, a branching ratio of the isomer decay of Γ^γ_II/Γ^f_II ≈ 6 can be deduced.     

Search for E2 strength in electrofission of 238U and 232Th

We have measured the cross-section ratio σ^?/σ⁺ for the electron and positron induced fission of uranium and thorium in the energy range 10–40 MeV with detectors at 90° and in a 2π geometry. The observed periodic structure is discussed with respect to E2 admixtures and an anisotropy of the angular distribution, after the onset of each higher chance fission threshold, as well as with respect to the shape of the photofission cross section.     

Messung der Neutronenpolarisation bei der Reaktion12C(d,n 0)13N mit Hilfe der Mott-Schwinger-Streuung

The polarization of neutrons produced in the reaction¹²C(d, n ⁰)¹³N was measured. Deuterons from the Karlsruhe isochronous cyclotron were used to induce this reaction at 51,5 MeV laboratory energy. The degree of polarization was determined by using the special features of Mott-Schwinger scattering. With an uranium scatterer analysing efficiencies of up to 0.92 can be obtained at very small angles (0.23°). The analysing efficiency can be calculated if the differential cross section at 0° and the total cross section is known. These quantities were experimentally determined. The differential cross section for 49.4 MeV neutrons, scattered by uranium, was measured between 0.88° and 2.10°. By an extrapolation the value 43.4±2.6 b/sr was found for the nuclear differential cross section at zero degree. A total cross section ofσ _t=4.80±0.22 b was obtained. The neutron polarization was measured at a reaction angle of 24.5° and the result isP=?0.45±0.07. This value is fairly above the semiclassical 1/3 limit and can be only explained, if spin orbit forces are taken into account. For (d, n) reactions this is the first neutron-polarization measurement above an energy of 20 MeV.     

Near threshold neutron-fission cross section

The formal theory of intermediate structure in nuclear reactions is applied to the problem of sub-threshold fission processes induced by a neutron beam in a region of overlapping resonances. An explicit expression is obtained for the energy-averaged cross section also in the presence of a fission vibration in the second well. A method is shown for computing heights and curvatures of the two fission barriers from a knowledge of the slope of the cross section near the threshold, using also information from low-energy intermediate structures and from g.s. isomers. The method is applied to ²³⁵U, ²³⁸Np and ²⁴³Pu. The existence of a new isomer in ²³⁸Np is also predicted.     

Sub-Coulomb transfer and fission in collisions of129Xe,132Xe and136Xe with238U

Integral cross sections for fission and for one- and two-neutron transfer reactions in the system¹³²Xe+²³⁸U were measured radiochemically in the energy range 0.7≦E/E _Coul≦1. The excitation functions for fission and transfer are found to be essentially parallel below 0.85×E _Coul. Even at the lowest energies the transfer cross sections exceed the fission cross section by more than one order of magnitude. With the other projectiles¹²⁹Xe and¹³⁶Xe different transfer cross sections illustrating their sensitivity for the ground stateQ-values,Q _gg , are observed while the fission cross sections are the same as in the¹³²Xe +²³⁸U reaction. The fission data are interpreted in terms of a continuous transition between Coulomb fission and several transfer-induced fission processes.     

Systematic experimental survey on projectile fragmentation and fission induced in collisions of 238U at 1 A GeV with lead

Projectile fragmentation and fission, induced in collisions of ²³⁸U at 1 A GeV with lead, have systematically been studied. A complete survey on the isotopic production cross sections of all elements between vanadium (Z = 23) and rhenium (Z = 75) down to a cross section of 0.1 mb is given. About 600 isotopes produced in fragmentation and about 600 isotopes produced in fission were identified in the GSI fragment separator FRS from magnetic rigidities, time-of-flight values, and the energy loss in an ionisation chamber. In addition, the velocity distributions of all these reaction products have been mapped, and the products are unambiguously attributed to the different reaction mechanisms due to their kinematical properties. The results are compared with empirical systematics and previous data. The velocity of the fragments obtained in the fission process by the Coulomb repulsion allows one to reconstruct the TKE-value of the break-up and to identify the atomic number of the fissioning nucleus in hot fission. The mean velocities of light projectile fragments were found to be higher than the beam velocity.     

Correlations between fission fragments and light charged-particles in the reaction20Ne+197Au at 13 MeV/nucleon

rgy of light charged-particles has been measured in coincidence with one or two fission fragments in the reaction²⁰Ne+¹⁹⁷Au at a bombarding energy of 13 MeV/u. The fission cross section was found equal to 1,340±260 mb. Assuming that it represents the totality of the fusion cross section, the critical valuel _c is deduced equal to 93±9?, higher thanl _Bf=0=74 in the rotating liquid drop model. The main emission source for protons and alpha particles seems to be a thermally equilibrated composite system. The competition between fission and charged particle emission is unexpected in the frame of the statistical treatment. A high energy component is observed in the forward direction. These results correspond to the first step of a study programme on the evolution of nucleus-nucleus collisions between 10 and 100 MeV per nucleon.     

The thermal neutron induced fission cross section of 232Th

The thermal neutron induced fission cross section of ²³²Th was measured using the highly pure thermal neutron beam from the 87 m curved neutron guide at the High Flux Reactor of the ILL (Grenoble). An upper limit of 4 μb was obtained for the fission cross section, which is an order of magnitude smaller than previous results. This result is discussed in terms of the double-humped fission barrier theory.