Dependence of mass fission asymmetry on the compound excitation energy

The influence of the excitation energy of compound fissioning nucleus on the potential deformation energy as a function of the fission and asymmetry coordinates has been investigated. The Fermi distribution of nucleons at a certain temperature is assumed and taken into account in the Strutinsky shell-correction method. It has been found that the structure of the potential energy surface becomes smoother with increasing excitation energy and shell effects disappear at a compound-nuclear temperature of 2.0 to 2.5 MeV.