Fragment distributions in the fission of 232Th by protons of energies 13 to 53 MeV

Abstract

Mass and kinetic energy distributions have been obtained for 232Th fissioned by protons of energies 13, 20, 27, 35, 40, 45 and 53 MeV by measuring energies of coincident pairs of fission fragments in gold surface-barrier detectors. The data are displayed in various ways with the main object of showing the effect of increase in excitation energy of the compound nucleus. Most parameters are affected in a uniform and probably monotonic way. The data favour the two-mode of fission hypothesis over the fragment shell theory.