Dynamical features of nuclear fission

Abstract

It is now established that the transition-state theory of nuclear fission due to Bohr and Wheeler underestimates several observables in heavy-ion-induced fusion–fission reactions. Dissipative dynamical models employing either the Langevin equation or equivalently the Fokker–Planck equation have been developed for fission of heavy nuclei at high excitations (T∼1 MeV or higher). Here, we first present the physical picture underlying the dissipative fission dynamics. We mainly concentrate upon the Kramers’ prescription for including dissipation in fission dynamics. We discuss, in some detail, the results of a statistical model analysis of the pre-scission neutron multiplicity data from the reactions 19F+194,196,198Pt using Kramers’ fission width. We also discuss the multidimensional Langevin equation in the context of kinetic energy and mass distribution of the fission fragments.