Neutrino-induced fission of neutron-rich nuclei

We calculate neutrino-induced fission cross sections for selected nuclei with Z=84-92. We show that these reactions populate the daughter nucleus at excitation energies where shell effects are significantly washed out, effectively reducing the fission barrier. If the r process occurs in the presence of a strong neutrino fluence, and electron neutrino average energies are sufficiently high, perhaps as a result of matter-enhanced neutrino flavor transformation, then neutrino-induced fission could lead to significant alteration in the r-process flow in slow outflow scenarios.