Abstract
Recent developments, both in theoretical modeling and computational power, have allowed us to make progress on a goal not fully achieved yet in nuclear theory: a microscopic theory of nuclear fission. Even if the complete microscopic description remains a computationally demanding task, the information that can be provided by current calculations can be extremely useful to guide and constrain more phenomenological approaches, which are simpler to implement. First, a microscopic model that describes the real-time dynamics of the fissioning system can justify or rule out some of the approximations. Second, the microscopic approach can be used to obtain trends, e.g., with increasing excitation energy of the fissioning system, or even to compute observables that cannot be otherwise calculated in phenomenological approaches or that can be hindered by the limitations of the method. We briefly present in this contribution the time-dependent superfluid local density approximation (TDSLDA) approach to nuclear fission, approach that has become a very successful theoretical model in many areas of many-body research. The TDSLDA incorporates the effects of the continuum, the dynamics of the pairing field, and the numerical solution is implemented with controlled approximations and negligible numerical errors. The main part of the current contribution will be dedicated to discussing the method, and recent results concerning the fission dynamics. In addition, we present results on the excitation energy sharing between the fragments, which are in agreement with a qualitative conclusions extracted from a limited number of experimental measurements of properties of prompt neutrons.
Highlights
Fission is a complex many-body process that involves the shape evolution of a nuclear system from a compact object into two fission fragments
Because such processes are much slower that the dynamics from saddle-to-scission, their treatment is decoupled from the formation of the fission fragments
After performing the time-dependent superfluid approximation (TDSLDA) simulation, we found that, independently of the functional used, the fission fragments emerge with similar properties
Summary
Fission is a complex many-body process that involves the shape evolution of a nuclear system from a compact object into two (or more) fission fragments. The description of the fission process does not stop with the formation of the fission fragments and the prompt neutron and gamma emission: the daughter nuclei, which are highly excited and far from stability, continue to beta decay and emit delayed neutrons and gamma rays until they reach the stability region. An assumption used in all codes that compute the properties of prompt fission particles is the fact that the latter are emitted from the fully accelerated fission fragments, ignoring the possibility of neutron emission at scission or during acceleration. The need for guidance from theoretical models is urgent, and the best approach would be to combine both phenomenological and microscopic approaches that deliver relevant information for those applications
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