A combinatorial analysis of pair breaking in fission

We develop a model for pair-breaking in order to explain the behavior of the even-odd effects displayed both by the fragment yields and the fragments' kinetic energies in low energy nuclear fission. Neutron and proton pair breaking are taken into acount. Two pair-breaking mechanisms are considered. In the first, pairs are broken at the saddle point and the individual members of the broken pairs are assumed to localise independently in the fragments. In the second, pairs are broken at scission and individual members of the broken pairs are assumed to end in different fission fragments. With this simple model all existing experimental data can be explained, including results of cold-fragmentation.