Microscopic Calculation of Fission Product Yields with Particle Number Projection

Abstract

Fission fragments' charge and mass distribution is an important input to applications ranging from basic science to energy production or nuclear non-proliferation. In simulations of nucleosynthesis or calculations of superheavy elements, these quantities must be computed from models, as they are needed in nuclei where no experimental information is available. Until now, standard techniques to estimate these distributions were not capable of accounting for fine-structure effects, such as the odd-even staggering of the charge distributions. In this work, we combine a fully-microscopic collective model of fission dynamics with a recent extension of the particle number projection formalism to provide the highest-fidelity prediction of the primary fission fragment distributions for the neutron-induced fission of ${}^{235}$U and ${}^{239}$Pu. We show that particle number projection is an essential ingredient to reproduce odd-even staggering in the charge yields and benchmark the performance of various empirical probability laws that could simulate its effect. This new approach also enables for the first time the realistic determination of two-dimensional isotopic yields within nuclear density functional theory.

15 pages, 11 figures

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Theory of Nuclear Fission
• Nucleosynthesis and observation of the heaviest elements
• Microscopic analysis of induced nuclear fission dynamics
• Time-dependent generator coordinate method study of fission: dissipation effects
• Neck Rupture and Scission Neutrons in Nuclear Fission
• Theoretical description of fission yields: towards a fast and efficient global model
• Extended time-dependent generator coordinate method study of induced fission (II): total kinetic energy distribution
• Fourier-over-Spheroid shape parametrization applied to nuclear fission dynamics
• Microscopic Calculation of Fission Product Yields for Odd-Mass Nuclei
• ${}^{178}$Hg and asymmetric fission of neutron-deficient pre-actinides
• Three-dimensional potential energy surface for fission of ${}^{236}$U within covariant density functional theory
• Microscopic theory of angular momentum distributions across the full range of fission fragments
• Restoring Broken Symmetries for Nuclei and Reaction Fragments
• Models for Pairing Phenomena
• Microscopic Theory of Nuclear Fission
• Microscopic self-consistent description of induced fission: dynamical pairing degree of freedom