Experiments on the search for pion production in fission of heavy nuclei

Abstract

Negative results of the so far conducted experiments on the search for pion production in fission of heavy nuclei are due to the fact that most of the energy released in fission is transferred to fragments because of their Coulomb repulsion and is transformed into their kinetic energy. Only in the case of extraordinarily strong static prefission deformation of a nucleus the fragments might take off such a small amount of energy that the rest would be enough for production of a pion. It is proposed to carry out experiments on the search for this phenomenon by employing a proton beam with an energy slightly below the absolute kinetic threshold for pion production manifesting itself in the absence of fission. Details of such experiments are discussed.