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.     

Time-of-flight measurement of the evaporation residues from fusion of 5.9 mev/u 84kr and 27al

Mass and Z-distributions of the evaporation residues from compound-nucleus formation in the reaction 5.9 MeV/u ⁸⁴Kr on ²⁷Al were measured using a time-of-flight ΔE ? E telescope, which is described in detail. The high recoil velocity attained by choosing the heavy reaction partner as projectile made it possible to resolve the reaction products by mass and atomic number. Data were taken in the angular range from 1.5 to 6°. The residue distributions are compared to evaporation calculations assuming the statistical decay by fission and particle evaporation of the compound nucleus ¹¹¹Mn formed at an excitation energy of 108 MeV with angular momenta up to $\text{L}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>CN</mtext>}}\text{≈ 69}\text{h}\text{?}$. The data are consistent with the assumption of statistical equilibrium. Details of the de-excitation process, in particular the fission competition and the influence of nuclear deformations at high angular momenta, are discussed.     

Emission properties of fission fragments and their isomeric ratios

The properties of neutron emission from fragments formed in the spontaneous fission of ²⁵²Cf and in the thermal-neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U are analyzed on the basis of the statistical model of nuclear reactions. Upon extracting the mean excitation energies of fission fragments from experimental data on the mean multiplicities of neutrons, the observables of neutron emission can be described over wide ranges of total kinetic energies and masses. The observed values of mean fragment spins are also reproduced. A method for calculating the isomeric ratios of the independent yields of fission fragments that is based on the cascade-evaporation model of excited-nucleus decay is employed to describe experimental data on ²³⁵U fission induced by thermal neutrons and on ²³⁸U fission induced by alpha particles. The effect exerted on the isomeric ratios for fission fragments by two different assumptions on the spin distributions of primary-fragment populations—the assumption of the distribution associated with rotational degrees of freedom and the assumption of the distribution associated with the internal degrees of freedom of fully accelerated fragments—is investigated.     

Investigation of the velocity distribution of evaporation residues produced in20Ne+197Au reactions atE/A=5.7–11.4 MeV/u

The velocity distributions of evaporation — residues produced in complete fusion reactions of²⁰Ne+¹⁹⁷Au at bombarding energies ofE/A=5.7, 8.6 and 11.4MeV/u were measured with use of the velocity filter SHIP. It could be shown, that the production cross section for evaporation residues is influenced by emission of fast, light particles having an angular distribution, that is peaked in forward direction (preequilibrium particles). This contribution is, however too small to explain the enhancement of the evaporation residue production cross section by about two orders of magnitude compared to statistical model calculations. This latter effect is interpreted as mainly due to a delayed onset of compound fission.     

Ternary fission involving4He emission in the16O (144 MeV)+232Th and12C (108 MeV)+197Au reactions

The results of coincidence measurements of⁴He emission with fission fragments in reactions of¹²C(108 MeV) ions with a¹⁹⁷Au target and of¹⁶O(144 MeV) ions with a²³²Th target are presented. On the basis of a Monte Carlo kinematic simulation of nuclear reactions the experimental energy spectra and velocity distributions of alpha particles have been analyzed. A conclusion has been drawn that the main source of⁴ He emission is evaporation from the fissioning compound nucleus. Substantial part of alpha particles was emitted from fully accelerated fission fragments. Some of⁴He nuclei with an average energy of about 16 MeV (in the CM system) emitted mainly perpendicular to the fission axis were identified as being similar long-range alpha particles produced in ternary fission of heavy nuclei at a low excitation energy. The emission multiplicities of these particles are considerably higher than those observed at a low excitation energy. The experimental results are compared with the statistical model predictions.     

Proton and alpha radioactivity of very neutron deficient Te,I, Xe and Cs isotopes,studied after electrostatic separation

In fusion reactions of⁵⁸Ni beams with⁵⁴Pe and⁵⁸Ni target nuclei neutron deficient evaporation residues have been produced and separated from the beam in an electrostatic deflector with large acceptance. The recoil nuclei were implanted and detected in an array of 100 PIN photodiodes, where also their particle decays were recorded. The assignment of the 0.81 MeV proton line to the decay of¹⁰⁹I could be experimentally proven by the observation, that it is followed by the 3.31 MeV alpha emission from¹⁰⁸Te. A proton decay from¹¹²Cs was not observed. The decay energies of a number of known emitters have been measured with better precision.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. P. Kienle on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Observation of a fission-like process in the bombardment of48Ti and50Ti by32S

Heavy reaction products (A≧38) were studied in the bombardment of^48,50Ti by³²S at 105, 130 and 144 MeV beam energies. At 130 and 144 MeV, fragments are observed which have angular and kinetic energy distributions consistent with those expected from fission of the composite system (A ～ 80).     

Temperatures and Excitation Energies of Hot Nuclei in Reactions of 40Ar+natAg,209Bi at MeV/u

Coincidence measurements of fission fragment and light charged particle have been perfotrmed for the reactions of ⁴⁰Ar+^natAg,²⁰⁹Bi at E/A=25MeV using 4 PPAC and 11 sets of ΔE-E telescopes.Angular correlations of fission fragment were ploted as a function of the folding angle between the two detected fission fragments.The linear momentum transfer distributions were derived by measuring angular correlations.The backward spectra of light particles detected in coincidence with fission fragments having different average〈LMT〉are analyzed with Maxwell distribution.After some corrections the initial temperatures of the hot nuclei are determined from the energy spectra.The excitation energies corresponding to the different average〈LMT〉are obtained considering the reaction Q values and pre-equilibrum emission.In the central collision of the ⁴⁰Ar+^natAg,²⁰⁹Bi reactions,excitation energies are measured to be about 4.2MeV/u,2.4MeV/u and temperatures about 6.1MeV,5.5MeV,respecdvely.In semi-central collision,excitaionen energies are measured to be about 3.5MeV/u,1.9MeV/u and temperatures about 5.8MeV,4.8MeV respectively.     

The influence of the fission barrier on the mass distribution in reactions with symmetric fragmentation

The mass distributions of reaction products with symmetric fragmentation resulting from the bombardment of¹⁴⁴Sm,¹⁶⁵Ho,¹⁷⁵Lu,¹⁷⁶Hf,¹⁸¹Ta, and²⁰⁸Pb with⁴⁰Ar projectiles have been studied. The incident energies were chosen to populate nearly the same angular momentum range of the composite system while the nuclear temperature varies only weakly. The reaction products were identified by their energy and time of flight using a solid state detector placed at 60°. The width of the mass distribution was found to increase by nearly a factor of two as the liquid drop fission barrier of the different compound nuclei decreases from 11 to 2.2 MeV. For all systems, the survival of evaporation residues proves that compound fission contributes to the observed symmetric reaction component.     

The study of the (α, α'f) reaction at 120 MeV on 232Th and 238U: (I). Fission probabilities and angular distributions in the region of the giant quadrupole resonances

The fission decay channel of ²³²Th and ²³⁸U has been investigated, using the (α, α'f) reaction at 120 MeV bombarding energy. The angular distributions of the fission fragments and the fission probabilities up to around 15 MeV excitation have been measured. No evidence for the fission decay of the giant quadrupole resonance has been found, although for ²³⁸U, a weakly excited structure is seen in the (α, α'f) spectrum at about 9.5 MeV excitation at backward angles with respect to the recoil axis. This effect is similar to what has been found in a (⁶Li, ⁶Li'f) experiment reported recently. The over-all feature of the fission probability for excitation energies above the fission barrier are well reproduced by statistical calculations.     

32S-induced reactions at 10 MeV/u bombarding energy

The deep-inelastic processes of the reactions ³²S + ²⁸Si, ^natS, ⁴⁰Ca, ⁵⁸Ni, ⁷⁴Ge are studied at 10 MeV/u bombarding energy employing a kinematical coincidence spectrometer. From the measured energies, momenta, masses and atomic numbers of two heavy fragments the corresponding parameters for the unobserved reaction products and the reaction Q-values are deduced. It is found that the reactions generally show the pattern of a normal deep-inelastic process which is followed by the evaporation of several light particles. But with much less intensities other processes also seem to occur: three-fragment exit channels and incomplete energy damping which is correlated with the emission of a few light particles of high momenta.     

Investigation of fast neutron interaction with235U

The angular distribution of neutrons emitted by elastic, inelastic and fission processes on²³⁵U were measured at the incident neutron energies of 1.5, 1.9, 2.3, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5 MeV using nanosecond time-of-flight technique. The differential elastic scattering cross sections and their angular distributions at all the seven energies are presented. The total elastic scattering cross sections, angle and energy integrated cross sections for the inelastically scattered neutrons in energy bands of 200 keV, fission cross sections and the angular distributions of fission neutrons were extracted at 1.5, 1.9 and 2.3 MeV incident neutron energies. The energy distributions of the prompt fission neutrons and of the inelastically scattered neutrons are given at the incoming neutron energies of 1.5, 1.9 and 2.3 MeV; and the average fission neutron energies and the inelastic neutron evaporation temperatures were also evaluated at these energies.     

Alpha decay studies of very neutron deficient isotopes of Hf,Ta, W,and Re

Very neutron deficient isotopes in the Hf-Re region were produced by bombarding targets of^{107, 109}Ag,^{nat, 108, 110}Pd, and¹⁰³Rh with⁵⁸Ni accelerated by the linear accelerator UNILAC at GSI. After separation from the projectile beam by the velocity filter SHIP, the fusion products were implanted with their full recoil energy into a silicon surface barrier detector. The subsequent alpha decay of the implanted ions was measured with the same detector. In some of the experiments the evaporation residues were implanted into a position sensitive silicon surface barrier detector. With a newly developed position and time correlation technique parent daughter relationships, half lives, andα branching ratios of a large number of isotopes could be determined. In the investigated reactions the eleven new isotopes^161–164Re,¹⁶⁰W,^157–161Ta, and¹⁵⁶Hf could be identified. The measuredQ _α values, half lives, and a branching ratios are discussed. Two new high energyα. transitions of (7,408±10) keV and (7,804±15) keV were also found with half lives of 2.7 ms and 0.52 ms, respectively.A tentative mass and atomic number assignment givesA=153–156 andZ=70–72. The energies of the excited isomeric states are between 2 MeV and 3 MeV. From the systematics of alpha ground state transitions in even nuclei a hindrance of 10⁵ can be deduced for both transitions, possibly indicating orbital angular momenta on the order of 10? for the alpha emitting states. The isomers are proposed to belong to shell model isomers beyond¹⁴⁶Gd.     

Fission time in the 28Si + natPt reaction

The experimental fission times are analyzed for excited nuclei produced in the ²⁸Si + ^natPt reaction. Experimental lifetimes obtained by the crystal-blocking technique range between 10^?17 and 10^?18 s at bombarding energies between 140 and 170 MeV, respectively. Experimental data are analyzed within the statistical theory of nuclear reactions and the double-humped-fission-barrier model with allowance for preequilibrium processes and the nuclear-dissipation phenomenon. It is shown that fission barriers retain their double-humped structure for nuclear temperatures up to about 1.7–1.8 MeV and that the lifetimes of excited strongly deformed states in the second potential well contribute substantially to the observed delay times in the fission decay channel.     

Fission accompanied by alpha particle emission in the12C(85MeV)+232Th reaction

Inclusive and coincident spectra of alpha particles and fission fragments were measured for the²³²Th+¹²C (85 MeV) reaction to study the influence of the excitation energy and the angular momentum on the fission of the compound nucleus and to separate different alpha particle emission mechanisms. At backward angles α emission can be accounted for by the evaporation processes. At forward angles the most important contribution is given by the break-up fusion process. Mass distributions for compound nuclei²⁴⁴Cm (E^*=58 MeV,ff coincidences), and²⁴⁰Pu (E^*=37 MeV,ff α coincidences) were obtained. In the case of²⁴⁰Pu mass distribution has a shape different from those obtained in light ion reactions at the same excitation energy, indicating the strong influence of the entrance channel. The dependence of the mass distribution shape on the α particle energy is also examined.     

Mechanisms for emission of4He in the reactions of 334 MeV40Ar with238U

Emission of⁴He in the reaction 334 MeV⁴⁰Ar+²³⁸U has been studied by triple coincidence measurements that allow the separate identification of fusion fission and sequential fission. For the⁴He evaporative spectra from fusion fission the composite system is shown to be the predominant contributor; whereas, for sequential fission the dominant emission is from the fragments. This result demonstrates a correlation between evaporative emission probability and lifetime expectancy of the composite system. To account for the observed⁴He spectra two other mechanisms are necessary in addition to nuclear evaporation. At forward angles, the⁴He spectra from both fusion fission and sequential fission exhibit higher intensities and larger energies than those expected from purely evaporative processes. This forward-peaked component must be related to a very rapid or pre-thermalization stage of the reaction. At backward angles yet another component is observed for fusion fission. As it is sensitive to the fragment masses but does not carry the kinematic shift characteristic of their full acceleration, this component must originate near to the time of scission. The average⁴He energy for this component is approximately 17 MeV (c.m.), and its intensity is correlated with a plane perpendicular to the fission fragment separation axis. These signatures are similar to those for long range alpha particle emission in low energy fission. Alpha particles evaporated from the composite nuclei in fusion-fission reactions are shown to be preferentially associated with fission events which result in the more symmetric masses. This result is consistent with the notion that mass asymmetric fission is a faster process than symmetric fission. Such a correlation between mass asymmetry and lifetime is an essential part of the “fast fission” or “quasifission” idea, which has attracted much current attention.     

Fission and the ion-ion interaction

A fission theory based on a preformation probability and the decay of the daughter pair through their associated ion-ion potential is presented. The preformation probability is estimated to be 10⁻⁵. The nuclear component of ion-ion potential is determined in a sudden approximation by superposing the ground state densities of the daughter pair and is found to be 60–70 MeV deep. Using observed kinetic energies, absolute lifetimes are calculated for both symmetric and asymmetric fission of U²³⁴, Pu²⁴⁰, Cm²⁴⁴, and Cf²⁴⁸ with good results. In addition, the absolute lifetimes associated with the decay of Pu²⁴⁰ into a series of other modes are presented. The relevance of this theory to the isotopic dependence of lifetimes, prompt neutron fission, and subthreshold fission is discussed in qualitative terms. Thus the nuclear fission seems to be a sudden process.     

Directed collective flow and azimuthal distributions in 36Ar + 27Al collisions from 55 to 95 MeV/u

A 4π charged particle detector array with a low velocity threshold has been used to detect the products from reactions induced by ³⁶Ar on ²⁷Al at energies ranging from 55 to 95 MeV/u. Well characterized events were selected and sorted as a function of the impact parameter. Two methods were used for sorting these events with respect to their impact parameters and three methods were compared to determine the reaction plane. The transverse momentum analysis has been found to be the best method to extract the direction of the reaction plane for this system and for the experimental set-up used here. The energy of vanishing flow for central collisions has been found to be around 90–95 MeV/u. The azimuthal distributions of mid-rapidity particles exhibit a preferential in-plane emission and no squeeze-out effect.     

Activation cross sections for reactions of 109Ag induced with 40Ar ions

Activation cross sections for reactions of enriched targets of ¹⁰⁹Ag with ⁴⁰Ar ions of 288 and 228 MeV have been determined by γ-ray spectroscopy. Yields of evaporation residues and low-mass transfer products have been measured. Evaporation residue yield-mass distributions are compared with three sets of statistical model results. The calculation based on a rotating liquid drop model with fission competition is in very good agreement with experimental results. It is shown that the yields are inconsistent with a mechanism of incomplete fusion plus evaporation.     

Evaporation residue cross sections for 40Ca + 48Ti at 25.0 and 33.9 MeV per nucleon

The fusion and subsequent decay of the system ⁴⁰Ca+⁴⁸Ti has been studied at 25.0 and 33.9 MeV per nucleon bombarding energies. Heavy residues were detected in coincidence with light particles, and evaporation residue cross sections have been extracted. Light particle distributions are well described by a simple kinematical model, and from this the average excitation energies of the system were determined.