Muon attachment in prompt fission of237Np

The probabilities of muon attachment to fission fragments in the prompt fission of²³⁷Np have been determined as a function of fragment mass and total kinetic energy release in a (^–,f₁f₂e^–)-coincidence measurement. A strong dependence of the attachment probability on the fragment mass is observed. The experimental results are compared with theoretical predictions.It is a pleasure to thank Professor T. Mayer-Kuckuk for his co-operation in performing the project. We gratefully acknowledge the permanent support of Professor J.P. Blaser and his staff at PSI. We thank Professor R. Engfer, Dr. A.v.d. Schaaf, and Dr. H.C. Walter for their support in using the electron spectrometer SIN-DRUM I. We are thankful to Professor S. Polikanov (GSI) and to Dr. T. Krogulski (University of Warsaw, Bialystok) for intensive and fruitful discussions. We appreciate the collaboration of Professor W. Müller and Dr. J. Pauwels (CBNM-Mol) in the target preparation. This work has been funded by the German Federal Minister for Research and Technology (BMFT) under the contract number 06BN271 (PD, HH, FR, ChR, WS). We thank the following institutions and organisations for financial support: Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), the Netherlands Organisation of the Advancement of Pure Research (NWO) (JK, CdL, AT), and the Swiss National Foundation (SNF) (WB, EH; HP, DV). One of the authors is grateful for a fellowship granted by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (FR).