Role of energy cost in the yield of cold ternary fission of 252 Cf

The energy costs in the cold ternary fission of ²⁵²Cf for various light charged particle emission are calculated by including Wong’s correction for Coulomb potential. Energy cost is found to be higher in cold fission than in normal fission. It is found that energy cost always increases with decrease in experimental yield in all the light charged particle emissions. The higher ground state deformation of the fragments, the odd–even effect and the enhanced yield in the octupole region observed in cold fission are found to be consistent with the concept of energy cost.