Fission mass division and topology of potential energy surface

Iwamoto, Akira; Mller, P.*; Madland, D. G.*; Sierk, A. J.*

AIP Conference Proceedings 597, p.243 - 248, 2001/00

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1427469

We present calculations of fission potential energy surface based on Strutinsky's prescription for realistic shape parameterization of the fissioning nuclei. It involves 5 shape parameters from which we obtain 5-dimensional potential energy surface of more than 2.5 million points. The analysis of the saddle point was performed without any approximation and we obtained the following understanding of the fission process. (1) Most of the actinide nuclei have the lowest two saddle points, one is mass-symmetric and the other is mass-asymmetric. (2) The relative height of these two saddles depends on the fissioning nucleus and experimentally observed mass division mode was well understood from the properties of the lowest saddle point. (3) Bimodal feature of Fm isotopes was well understood from the analysis of the saddle points. (4) Degree of the mass asymmetry of the most probable mass division was well understood from the potential energy surface.