Fusion-fission of heavy and superheavy nuclei

The process of fusion-fission of heavy and superheavy nuclei (SHE) with Z=82–122 formed in the reactions with ⁴⁸Ca and ⁵⁸Fe ions at energies near and below the Coulomb barrier has been studied. The experiments were carried out at the U-400 accelerator of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (JINR) and at the XTU Tandem accelerator of the National Laboratory of Legnaro (LNL) using the time-of-flight spectrometer of fission fragments CORSET and the neutron multidetector DEMON. As a result of the experiments, mass and energy distributions (MED) of fission fragments; fission, quasifission, and evaporation residue cross sections; and multiplicities of neutrons and γ-quanta and their dependences on the mechanism of formation and decay of compound systems have been studied.     

Fission process of superheavy nuclei

The process of fusion-fission of superheavy nuclei with Z=102?122 formed in the reactions with ²²Ne, ²⁶Mg, ⁴⁸Ca, ⁵⁸Fe and ⁸⁶Kr ions at energies near and below the Coulomb barrier has been studied. The experiments were carried out at the U-400 accelerator of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (JINR) using a time-of-flight spectrometer of fission fragments CORSET and a neutron multi-detector DEMON. As a result of the experiments, mass and energy distributions of fission fragments, fission and quasi-fission cross sections, multiplicities of neutrons and gamma rays and their dependence on the mechanism of formation and decay of compound superheavy systems have been studied.     

Absolute photofission cross sections for 232Th and 235,238U measured with monochromatic tagged photons (20 Mev < Eγ < 110 Mev)

The absolute photofission cross sections for ²³²Th and ^{235, 238} U has been studied from 20 to 110 MeV using the photon tagging technique at the Saclay linear electron accelerator (ALS). The fission fragments were directly detected using a parallel plate avalanche detector (PPAD). The basic experimental results are a set of data giving σ(E_γ, fission). These results are compared with the few other measurements performed with monochromatic photons. From a comparison of the present fission data with the total absorption cross section, the total fission probability was deduced. The behaviour of this probability was discussed in terms of a cascade model for fission-evaporation competition. Quite good agreement is found with a calculation based on the hybrid model of pre-equilibrium reactions.     

Independent yields of Kr and Xe fragments in the photofission of <Superscript>237</Superscript>Np and <Superscript>243</Superscript>Am odd nuclei

Results are presented that were obtained by measuring the independent yields of Kr (A = 89–93) and Xe (A = 135–142) appearing as fragments in the photofission of ²³⁷Np and ²⁴³Am odd nuclei. The respective experiments were performed in a beam of bremsstrahlung photons from electrons accelerated to an energy of 25 MeV at the microtron of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Dubna). Use was made of the procedure involving the transportation of fragments emitted from the target by a gas flow along a capillary and the condensation of inert gases in a cryostat at liquid-nitrogen temperature. The identification of Kr and Xe appearing as fragments was performed by the gamma spectra of their daughter products. The mass-number distributions of the independent yields of Kr and Xe isotopes were obtained, along with those for the complementary fragments (Y and La in the fission of ²³⁷Np and Nb and Pr in the fission of ²⁴³Am).     

MAFF — The Munich accelerator for fission fragments

At the new high flux reactor FRM-II in Munich the accelerator MAFF (Munich accelerator for fission fragments) is under design. In the high neutron flux of 10¹⁴ n/cm² s up to 10¹⁴ neutron-rich fission fragments per second are produced in the 1 g U-235 target. Ions with an energy of 30 keV are extracted from the ion source. In the mass separator two isotopes can be selected. One of the beams is used for low energy experiments, the other one is injected into an ECRIS (or EBIS) for charge breeding to a q/A≥0.16. A gas filled RFQ cooler is used for emittance improvement. The subsequent LINAC delivers beams with an energy ranging from 3.7 MeV/u to 5.9 MeV/u. New IH structures are being developed at the Munich tandem laboratory. A small storage ring is planned in a further stage to recycle the fission fragments. A thin target foil can be placed into this ring, e.g., for synthesis of super-heavy elements. The through-going beam tube has been installed in the heavy water tank of the reactor. Tests of the target ion source in a special oven to test long term stability and safety tests were in progress.     

Fission and fragmentation of 208Pb nuclei in collisions with gold nuclei at an energy of 158 GeV per nucleon

The fission and fragmentation of ultrarelativistic ²⁰⁸Pb nuclei in collisionswith gold nuclei were studied by using a beam from the SPS accelerator at CERN at an energy of 158 GeV per nucleon. The detectors of the target area of the NA45/CERES spectrometer were used in respective measurements. The value obtained for the fission cross section is 301 ± 44 mb, where about 77% of events stem from the electromagnetic interaction of colliding nuclei, while the remaining part is the contribution of peripheral nuclear interactions. The spallation of lead nuclei that involves the formation of heavy fragments occurs only in collisions where the impact parameter satisfies the condition b > 10 fm. A complete disintegration of lead nuclei to intermediate-mass fragments and light particles is observed in some peripheral collisions.     

Photofission of 238U at the energy of the giant dipole resonance

Photofission of ²³⁸ U by bremsstrahlung photons is studied at four energies of an electron accelerator: 19.5, 29.1, 48.3, and 67.7 MeV. The yields of the fission fragments after the emission of prompt neutrons are obtained using the gamma-ray spectroscopic technique. The mass distributions of photofission are obtained at different upper energies of the bremsstrahlung spectrum. The ratio the symmetric-fission mode to the asymmetric mode is obtained from the mass distribution. The symmetric mode becomes 3–4 times greater than the asymmetric as the excitation energy of the ²³⁸U nucleus increases from 12 to 16 MeV.     

Single-proton states in149Pm

The¹⁵⁰Sm(t,α)¹⁴⁹Pm reaction was studied using 17MeV polarized tritons from the tandem Van de Graaff accelerator at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The alpha particles were analyzed using a Q3D magnetic spectrometer and detected with a helicalcathode position-sensitive counter. The overall resolution was ～25 keV FWHM. In the present study many of the previous spin assignments have been confirmed, and some ambiguities in earlier studies have been resolved. The important levels at 416 and 751 keV that are strongly populated in the stripping reactions are shown to be 3/2⁺. Also new fragments of theg _7/2 andd _3/2 shell model states have been located. The deduced spectroscopic factors are compared to those measured in other promethium isotopes. It was found that the total (t, α) strength of the assigned peaks is stable within 15% for the chain of promethium isotopes ranging from mass number 147 to 153.     

A search for rare types of fission induced in silver and bromine nuclei

Ternary and quaternary fission produced in silver and bromine nuclei have been studied withK5 nuclear emulsion exposed to 1.8 GeV/cK ⁻ beams. The frequency of the ternary events is found to be ∼0.08 of that of the binary events produced in the same volume of the emulsion. The range ratio and range distribution of the fission fragments are studied and the angles between each pair of the fragments are determined. Ranges are found to vary from 5 to 40μ with a maximum number lying between 5 and 10μ. The angles between the fission fragments are found to form a broad distribution extending from 40° to 180°. A few of the events have also been analysed to give them a possible identity. A possible case of quaternary fission has also been reported. This paper was presented at the Symposium on 3rd High Energy Physics held at Bhubaneswar during November 1976.     

Light charged particle emission and fission in238U+238U collisions at 1,740 MeV

Inclusive⁴He and⁴H energy spectra and heavy fragment coincidence correlations have been measured for reactions of 7.31 MeV/u²³⁸U with²³⁸U and^?197Au targets. The H/He production cross sections are in the range 15–26 mb, and their emission spectra are very similar for the two systems. The observed strong kinematic shifts with angle are reproduced in shape and magnitude by Monte Carlo simulations of particle evaporation from projectile-like and target-like fragments, indicating competition between charged particle emission and sequential fission. No evidence is found for high energy charged particle emission associated with ultra-highZ composite systems. Heavy fragment measurements indicate an abundance of quasielastic and deeply inelastic reaction fragments, as well as sequential fission of target and projectile nuclei. For²³⁸U nuclei, the fission occurs predominantly in an asymmetric mode, reminiscent of fission at low excitation energy. For²³⁸+²³⁸U reactions in the vicinity of the grazing angle, the frequency of single sequential fission (with survival of the partner fragment) is twice as large as double sequential fission in which both the target and projectile undergo fission. In²³⁸U+¹⁹⁷Au reactions, the survival probability of the heavy fragments is even greater. The surprisingly high survival probabilities of high-Z fragments imply a preponderance of very soft collisions in these very-heavy-ion reactions, at least at energies not very far over the Coulomb barrier.     

Characteristics of spontaneous fission of <Superscript>250</Superscript>No

This study describes an experiment on investigating the properties of spontaneous fission of shortlived neutron-deficient nuclei synthesized in the reaction of complete fusion ⁴⁸Ca + ²⁰⁴Pb = ²⁵²No*. The experiment is performed using the SHELS separator and the beam of multicharged ions at U-400 accelerator (LNR, JINR). Two activities undergoing spontaneous fission, which can be related to the ground and isomeric states of ²⁵⁰No nucleus, are registered. The half-lives, total kinetic energies of fission fragments, and neutron multiplicities are measured for the short-lived nuclei. The average number of neutrons per fission for the activity with t _1/2 = 5.1 ± 0.3 μs is = 4.38 ± 0.13 μs, and for nuclei with the half-life t _1/2 = 36 ± 3 μs it is xxxxx.     

Cold deformed fission in232U(n,f) and239Pu(n,f)

Masses, charges and kinetic energies of light fission fragments from the reactions²³²U(n, f) and²³⁹Pu(n, f) induced by thermal neutrons have been measured on the Cosi fan tutte spectrometer of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble. Both at very high and very low kinetic energies marked fine structures in the mass yields and odd-even staggerings in the charge yields are observed. In the framework of a scission point model the results are shown to point to compact and deformed scission configurations, respectively, where at scission the fragments carry no intrinsic excitation energy. The two limiting processes may, therefore, be called cold compact fission (usually known as cold fission) and cold deformed fission. The latter process as a general phenomenon of low energy fission has come into focus only recently.     

Yield of fission fragments from the photofission of actinide nuclei

Yields of the ¹⁰¹Mo, ¹³⁵I, and ^135m Cs isotopes from the photofission of the actinide nuclei ²³²Th ²³⁸U, and ²³⁷Np are measured. These fission fragments have specific nuclear structure features or are of practical use. The measurements are performed in the bremsstrahlung from the microtron of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) at an electron energy of 22 MeV. The yields of the fragments are measured by the activation method using a γ radiation HPGe detector.     

A study of the (τ, α) reaction on 50Cr

The ⁵⁰Cr(τ, α)⁴⁹Cr reaction has been studied at E_τ = 16.0 MeV using the Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator and the multichannel magnetic spectrograph of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Oxford. Twenty-nine levels up to an excitation of ≈ 6.8 MeV have been observed, including a few analogues. The angular distributions have been analyzed in terms of the DWBA theory of direct reaction. The J^π limits and spectroscopic factors are obtained for various levels.     

A possible mechanism in heavy ion induced reactions: “Fast fission process”

The influence of the orbital angular momentuml on the mass distribution of fission fragments is studied, both on previously available data on heavy ion induced fission and in new specifically planned experiments: systems⁴⁰Ar+¹⁶⁵Ho and²⁴Mg+¹⁸¹Ta at bombarding energies ranging from 180 up to 391 MeV and leading to the same fissioning nucleus²⁰⁵At with differentl distributions. Whenl values corresponding to a vanished fission barrier are reached, the mass distribution broadens. This suggest the existence of a specific process, “fast fission”, atl-values intermediate betweenl-values leading to compound nucleus formation and deep inelastic collisions, respectively. This process and its conditions of occurence are discussed; of special interest are the correlated differences between the limitations to the fusion cross-section and the fission mass distributions broadenings, respectively, for the Ar+Ho and Mg+Ta systems.     

Investigation of the 208Pb(18O, f) fission reaction: Mass-energy distributions of fission fragments and their correlation with the gamma-ray multiplicity

The mass-energy distributions of fragments originating from the fission of the compound nucleus ²²⁶Th and their correlations with the multiplicity of gamma rays emitted from these fragments are measured and analyzed in ¹⁸O + ²⁰⁸Pb interaction induced by projectile oxygen ions of energy in the range E _lab = 78–198.5 MeV. Manifestations of an asymmetric fission mode, which is damped exponentially with increasing E _lab, are demonstrated. Theoretical calculations of fission valleys reveal that only two independent valleys, symmetric and asymmetric, exist in the vicinity of the scission point. The dependence of the multiplicity of gamma rays emitted from both fission fragments on their mass, M_γ(M), has a complicated structure and is highly sensitive to shell effects in both primary and final fragments. A two-component analysis of the dependence M_γ(M) shows that the asymmetric mode survives in fission only at low partial-wave orbital angular momenta of compound nuclei. It is found that, for all E _lab, the gamma-ray multiplicity M_γ as a function of the total kinetic energy (TKE) of fragments, M_γ(TKE), decreases linearly with increasing TKE. An analysis of the energy balance in the fission process at the laboratory energy of E _lab = 78 MeV revealed the region of cold fission of fragments whose total kinetic energy is TKE ～Q _max.     

A study of the level properties of 57Co from the (τ, d) reaction on 56Fe

The ⁵⁶Fe(τ, d)⁵⁷Co reaction has been studied at E_τ = 18 MeV using the Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator and the multichannel magnetic spectrograph of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Oxford, Angular distributions have been measured for most of the levels up to E_x ≈ 7.8 MeV and are analysed in terms of the DWBA theory of direct reactions. The l_p values and the transition strengths compared with available theories.     

The collinear cluster tri-partition (CCT) of 252Cf (sf): New aspects from neutron gated data

Results of two different experiments for the study of fission of ²⁵²Cf (sf) events in coincidence with neutrons are reported. Two time-of-flight-energy (TOF-E detectors systems have been used. The fission fragment masses were obtained in a double arm coincidence set-up, where the missing mass in the binary decay is used to characterise ternary fission as a collinear cluster tri-partition (CCT). The ³He filled neutron counters have been arranged so as to detect principally neutrons emitted from an isotropic source in the laboratory frame. The fission events connected to the larger experimental neutron multiplicities show a wide range in the missing-mass spectrum, down to $ \alpha$ -particles, carbon and oxygen isotopes. These are linked with magic nuclei in the binary mass-mass correlations of the fission fragments. These neutron gated data are virtually free from background events from scattered binary fission fragments. The ungated spectra are compared to those of the previous data from our previous article (Eur. Phys. J. A. 45, 29 (2010)), the observed structures agree well with the manifestations of the collinear cluster tri-partition of ²⁵²Cf (sf) observed earlier. Several new families of the CCT modes are observed.     

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.     

Coherent bremsstrahlung and GDR width from Cf cold fission

The energy spectrum of the high energy γ-rays in coincidence with the prompt γ-rays has been measured for the spontaneous fission of ²⁵²Cf. The nucleus–nucleus coherent bremsstrahlung of the accelerating fission fragments is observed and the result has been substantiated with a theoretical calculation based on the Coulomb acceleration model. The width of the giant dipole resonance (GDR) decay from the excited fission fragments has been extracted for the first time and compared with the thermal shape fluctuation model (TSFM) in the liquid drop formalism. The extracted GDR width is significantly smaller than the predictions of TSFM.