Multiparameter study of 1H, 3H and 4He in fast neutron induced fission of 235U

The emission probabilities per fission of α-particles, tritons and protons have been measured in fast neutron induced fission of ²³⁵U. The measurements were carried out at neutron energies of 120, 180, 230 and 550 keV. AΔE-E semiconductor detector telescope was used to identify different light charged particles and the fission fragments were detected with an ionization chamber. The three-parameter data corresponding to the pulse heights from the ΔE-E detectors and the ion-chamber were recorded event by event on magnetic tape and were analyzed off-line by computer. No significant variation in the most probable energy ($\text{E}$) and the standard deviation (σ_E) of the energy spectra of different light charged particles with incident neutron energy was observed, although $\text{E}{}_{\mathrm{\alpha }}$ was seen to have a slightly higher value beyond E_n = 230 keV. The yield of α-particles in fission induced by neutrons of E_n ～ 200 keV was found to be higher by about 20 % than that in thermal neutron induced fission. The yields of tritons and protons were found to increase significantly with neutron energy.     

Investigation of polar emission in 252Cf and 235U + nth fission

The energy distributions and relative intensities of protons, deuterons, tritons and α-particles emitted along the fission axis during spontaneous fission of ²⁵²Cf were measured simultaneously with both fission fragment energies. The absolute intensity of particles, the mass distribution of fragments, the total kinetic energy and total excitation energy of both fragments were subsequently deduced from the experimental data. Statistical model calculations based on a hypothesis that the polar particles are evaporated from fission fragments have been performed for ²⁵²Cf and ²³⁶U fission. Although some experimental results agree remarkably well with the evaporation hypothesis, the considered model cannot describe many features of the polar emission phenomenon.     

Light charged particle release in fission: Tripartition versus fragment de-excitation

Emission distributions P(E,θ) in energy E and angle θ of protons (p), tritons (t), and ∝-particles released in spontaneous fission of 252-Cf have been measured. Whereas the experimental data for t and ∝ indicate the expected tripartition as the predominant mode, p emission has been found to be due to fragment de-excitation from highly excited, rapidly moving fragments mainly.     

The (t, α) reaction on 121Sb and 123Sb

Angular distributions of α-particles from the (t, α) reaction on ¹²¹Sb and ¹²³Sb have been measured for incident tritons of 12 MeV. Levels up to excitation energies of 5.2 and 4.9 MeV in ¹²⁰Sn and ¹²²Sn, respectively, have been identified and analysed by the DWBA. Values of orbital angular momenta of the transferred protons have been assigned and spectroscopic factors deduced for all strongly excited levels. The extracted ground-state wave functions of the target nuclei have been compared with the calculated ones. A mixture of collective degrees of freedom is present in the low-lying states, weakly excited by the above very selective proton pick-up reaction. These states are populated by the pick-up of external protons (outer shells). At higher excitation energy (between 4 and 5 MeV) there are many strongly excited states populated by the proton pick-up from the Z = 50 proton core (inner shells); a predominantly 1p-1h character has been assigned to these states.     

Multiparameter studies of polar emission in 236U fission

The energy distributions and relative intensities of protons, deutrons, tritons and α-particles emitted along the fission axis during thermal neutron fission of ²³⁵U were measured simultaneously with both fission fragment energies. The mass distributions of fragments, the total kinetic energy (TKE), the dependence of the mean TKE on the fragment mass, as well as the mean kinetic energy dependence of polar particles on the fragment mass and energy were subsequently deduced from these data. Although some experimental results agree remarkably well with the hypothesis that polar particles are evaporated in flight from fission fragments, the general conclusion is that these particles are emitted according to some other mechanism.     

Preequilibrium α-particle emission in heavy-ion reactions

The α-particle emission following ¹⁴N-induced reactions on various heavy targets at 85–115 MeV has been studied. Cross sections of heavy residual nuclei produced after α-emission were measured in the case of the ²⁰⁹Bi target and were found to be close to the angle-integrated cross sections of α-particles, indicating that the α-emission mainly takes place in a binary process. The measured angular distributions of α-particles are pronouncedly forward-peaked, while the energy spectra are always characterized by the Maxwellian distribution even at forward angles and reproduced excellently by the statistical evaporation formula when nuclear temperature is treated as a free parameter. The resultant value of the temperature is high (4–6 MeV) at forward angles and decreases monotonically with increasing emission angles.The energy and angular distributions of protons, deuterons and tritons were also measured in the ¹⁸¹Ta + ¹⁴N reaction at 115 MeV. The results are similar to those of α-particles. In particular, nuclear temperatures turned out nearly equal to each other, being consistent with the hot-spot interpretation for the relevant preequilibrium light-particle emission.     

Correlation between energies and angles of α-particles emitted in thermal-neutron fission of U

The energy distribution and yields of the α-particles emitted in the thermal-neutron fission of ²³⁵U were measured with the same detector system for the cases when the average angles between fragments and α-particles were 90°, 46°, 27° and 11°. The data were analysed by the Monte Carlo method to take into account the effects of the finite size of the source and the various detectors, and the following results were obtained: (i) Even at small angles with respect to the fission axis the yield of the α-particles is about 2–3 % of the yield at 90°, and does not go to zero as would be expected for a true Gaussian angular distribution of a variance which fits the data around 90°. (ii) At these angles where most of the α-particle yield belongs to the non-Gaussian component, the α-particle energy distribution has a significantly higher most probable energy but the FWHM of the energy distribution is not significantly different, (iii) The rms width σ_θ of the Gaussian angular distribution is found to increase for very high (E_α > 20 MeV) α-particle energies and also to a lesser extent for very low (E_α < 15 MeV) energies. The origin of the yield of the α-particles at small angles, and the dependence of the rms width σ_θ on the energy are discussed.     

Energy dependence of fusion and reaction cross sections in the 9Be + 12C system

Angular distributions of protons, deuterons. tritons and α-particles were measured for the system ⁹Be + ¹²C at lab energies between 12 and 27 MeV. The compound nucleus model with level densities calculated according to the Gilbert-Cameron formula describes satisfactorily the measured proton, deuteron and triton data. In the α-particle spectra contributions from other processes seem to be present. In the analysis the fusion cut-off angular momentum was adjusted at each energy in order to reproduce correctly the proton, deuteron and triton channels. From this analysis the fusion cross section was determined as a function of the energy. The results were compared with fusion and total reaction cross section values calculated from a potential model with the real part of the interaction potential obtained from the double folding procedure of Satchler.     

Geometrical and dynamical state of the 252Cf nucleus at the scission point as determined from the experimental results of ternary fission

Resuits on the geometrical and dynamical states of fission fragments and α-particles are presented for the most probable mode of ternary fission, at the instant of release of the light particle. The distributions of the relevant physical quantities are obtained by means of a program calculating the trajectories of three point charges. A total of about 2 × 10⁵ combinations of the parameters, derived by subdividing the quantities into physically significant intervals, are used. The computed values are compared with experimental results and the distributions of the parameters are weighted by the spectrum of the α-parlicles. The dynamics of the system undergoing fission at scission point are characterized by the following quantities: (i) The total kinetic energy of fragments. (ii) The kinetic energy of the α-particle. (iii) The distance between the centres of charge of the fragments, (iv) The abscissa and Ordinate of the α-particle emission point, (v) The emission angle of the α-parlicle with respect to the line of flight of the light fragment. The distributions of above quantities are presented for the most probable model of spontaneous ternary fission of ²⁵²Cf The results obtained are discussed and relevant information on the dynamical properties of the last fission stage is presented.     

Anomalies of neutron and γ-ray emission in light charged particle accompanied fission of 252Cf

Correlations between the neutron and γ-ray emission and the kinetic energy of light charged particles (LCPs), such as protons, deuterons, tritons and alphas, from the fission of ²⁵²Cf were studied in a four parameter experiment. A ⊘ 16 cm × 5 cm liquid scintillator with n-γ discrimination and a ⊘ 10 cm × 10 cm NaI(Tl) crystal were employed to detect the neutrons and the γ rays, respectively, while a thin CsI(Tl) crystal, which had the ability to separate the LCPs, was used to determine the LCP energy. The experimental results show that for the α particle accompanied fission, the average total number of neutrons emitted per fission increases in the case of varying the alpha particle energy E_α from 7 to 11 MeV and then falls off linearly in a first approximation with increasing E_α, and the average total energy and the average total number of γ-rays per fission as well as the average γ-ray energy as functions of E_α show similar correlation features. For the hydrogen-ion accompanied fission, the correlations of the neutron and γ-ray emission with hydrogen ion (t, d and p) energy are very similar to those for the alpha-particle accompanied fission. The correlations of the neutron and γ-ray emission in the low LCP energy region, in contrast to that observed in the high LCP energy range, are called anomalies. On the basis of the results obtained by the three-point charge model and the liquid drop model calculation with shell and pairing correction, the anomalous behavior of the neutron and γ-ray emission is explained tentatively.     

Study of the fission decay of the isoscalar monopole resonance via the 238U(α, α′) reaction at 0°

The fission decay of ²³⁸U has been investigated using inelastic scattering of 120 MeV ga-particles to excite the ²³⁸U nucleus. Angular correlations of the fission fragments have been measured for excitation energies between 5.7 and 15.7 MeV in coincidence with inelastically scattered α-particles between 0 and 3°. The difference in yield for fission in coincidence with inelastically scattered α-particles between 0–1.35° and 1.35–3° was used to deduce the fission decay of the giant monopole resonance. It was found that in the fission decay channel (22 ± 5)% of the E0 EWSR strength is located between 8 and 15 MeV excitation energy. The distribution of the deduced monopole strength is in agreement with recent theoretical calculations predicting splitting of the giant monopole resonance in deformed nuclei.     

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.     

Investigation of the low lying levels in9B

The reaction¹⁰B(³He, α)⁹B(p)⁸Be(g.s.) has been studied using a 1.8 MeV³He⁺ beam. Coincidence spectra were measured at θ_α=?150? and θ_α=22.5?, 30?, 37.5?, 45?, 52.5?, 60? and 67.5? for the indentification of the levels in⁹B which decay by proton emission. Possible new excited levels in⁹B were observed at (1.9±0.1), (2.1±0.1), (2.6±0.1) and (3.1±0.1) MeV.     

Continuous particle spectra and angular distributions from different entrance channels forming 65Zn1 at 37.4 MeV excitation

Two solid state counter telescopes were used to measure continuous spectra and angular distributions of protons, deuterons, tritons, ³He and α-particles emitted in the decay of ⁶⁵Zn¹. The intermediate nucleus ⁶⁵Zn was formed at an excitation energy of 37.4 MeV using the entrance channels ⁶³Cu + d, ⁶²Ni + ³He and ⁶¹Ni + α with appropriate bombarding energies. The methods, limits and results of the experiment are presented, and the major features of the data are discussed.     

New experimental studies on the quaternary fission of <Superscript>233, 235</Superscript>U(n<Subscript>th</Subscript>, f ) and <Superscript>252</Superscript>Cf (sf )

Experiments have been performed for studying quaternary fission (QF) in spontaneous fission of ²⁵²Cf, on the one hand, and for the neutron-induced fission reactions ^{233, 235}U(n_th, f ), on the other hand. In this higher-multiplicity fission mode, by definition, four charged products appear in the final state. In other words, as a generalization of the ternary-fission process, not only one but two light charged particles (LCPs) are accompanying the splitting of an actinide nucleus into the customary pair of fission fragments. In the two sets of measurements, which have used quite different approaches, the yields of several QF reactions with α-particles and tritons as the LCPs have been determined and the corresponding kinetic-energy distributions of the α-particles measured. The QF process can appear in two basically different ways: i) the simultaneous creation of two LCPs in the act of fission (“true” QF) and ii) via a fast sequential decay of a single but particle-unstable LCP in common ternary fission (“pseudo” QF). Experimentally the two varieties of QF have been distinguished by exploiting the different patterns of angular correlations between the two outgoing LCPs. The experiments described in the present paper are the first to demonstrate that both types of reactions, true and pseudo QF, occur with quite comparable probabilities. As a new result also, the kinetic-energy distributions related to the two processes have been shown to be significantly different. For all QF reactions which could be explored, the yields for ²⁵²Cf(sf) were found to be roughly by an order of magnitude larger than the yields found in the ²³³U(n_th, f ) and ²³⁵U(n_th, f ) reactions. An interesting by-product has been the measurement of yields of excited LCPs which allows to deduce nuclear temperatures at scission by comparison to the respective yields in the ground state.     

Comment on isospin mixing in nuclei

The central collisions of 70 GeV/c protons with Ag, Br and Pb nuclei have been studied, with the help of BR-2 photoemulsion and emulsion of the same constitution loaded with Pb nuclei. It is shown that the average multiplicity of produced particles (s-particles) increases slowly with increasing the atomic weight of the target nucleus. The ratio of the average multiplicity for these particles to the average charged particle multiplicity for protonproton interactions equals 3.2 forp-Ag, Br and 3.5 forp-Pb. The average multiplicities of particles from nuclear disintegration with energies for protons from 26 up to 400 MeV (g-particles) are 14.2±0.8 forp-Ag, Br and 23.0±1.0 forp-Pb corresponding to the emission of about half of all nucleons from the nucleus at the first rapid stage of interaction. The difference of thes-particle pseudorapidity distributions forp-Ag, Br, Pb andp-p interactions at pseudorapidities larger than 4.2 can be explained by successive interactions of the incident proton with nucleus nucleons.     

High spin selectivity in α-particle induced reactions

Distinct maxima have been observed in the spectra of protons emitted from the ²⁴Mg(α, p)²⁷Al reaction in the region of the excitation energies of ²⁷Al between 5 and 15 MeV, where continuous spectra are expected according to the statistical model. To investigate the reaction mechanism responsible for the selective excitation of several states of ²⁷Al, angular distributions of protons in the angular range from 20° to 170° in the lab system were measured at the α-particles energies E_lab = 25.4 25.8 and 26.2 MeV. Thirteen out of thirty levels observed in proton spectra, exhibit symmetry of their angular distributions around 90° the c.m. system, when averaged over energy. The contribution of preequilibrium emission was calculated and found to be negligible. A Hauser-Feshbach analysis was carried out to determine spins of states of ²⁷Al whose angular distributions were symmetric around 90° in the c.m. system. Results of this analysis indicated high spin selectivity in the ²⁴Mg(α, p)²⁷Al reaction.     

Evidence for Coulomb-field induced light-particle emission during scission

Energy and angular correlations of protons and α particles were measured in coincidence with fission fragments in the reactions 200 MeV, 254 MeV ³⁷Cl + ¹²⁴Sn and 318 MeV ²⁸Si + ¹⁴¹Pr. The light-particle yield is dominated by statistical emission from composite nucleus and from fission fragments, but α spectra also display the characteristics of evaporation during scission. We give Coulomb-field induced light-particle emission as a novel and hitherto only consistent explanation of this emission process.     

Two-center molecular states in9B,9Be,10Be,and10B

The molecular states in the mass 9 and 10 nuclei, which consist of two α-particles plus one or two valence nucleons (protons or neutrons) are discussed. Arguments for the existence of two-center dimers as excited states in¹⁰Be and corresponding resonances (p+⁹Be) in¹⁰B are given. The latter states are observed as anomalous (non statistical) population in the final state interactions in thep+⁹Be channel in various heavy ion collisions. With the establishment of two-center states (dimers) based on the αα-potential and a localized binding via two nucleons in¹⁰Be, the existence of more extended structures (multimers) by adding (α2n) structures to¹⁰Be* is postulated. Generally clustering intoα-particles and nucleons in terms of molecular states is expected to occur at excitation energies close to the threshold for these substructures in analogy to the clustering rules of Ikeda forα-particle nuclei. Consequences to clustering properties of neutron rich nuclei are discussed.     

Photoproton and photo-α cross sections of 19F to excited residual states

Cross sections and integrated cross sections for photodisintegration of ¹⁹F to excited residual states following emission of protons, neutrons and α-particles have been measured. The size of the photo-α cross sections appear to be too large to be explained by a semidirect reaction mechanism.