Neutron emission as a clock and thermometer to probe the dynamics of fusion-fission and quasi-fission

Abstract

A compilation of currently available data on pre-scission neutron multiplicities shows clearly that the excitation energy in the fission fragments hardly increases with bombarding energy. This can be explained if fission is always a slow process, whilst evaporation becomes more and more rapid. The neutron clock-thermometer is introduced as a tool to deduce the dynamical timescale for fusion-fission, giving (35±15)×10−21 s. Quasi-fission is faster than fusion-fission because the equilibrium deformation is never reached (the mononucleus is thought to be always very deformed) thus fragment temperatures are higher, and the strong variation of vpre with TKE shows that a significant number of neutrons are emitted while the fragments are accelerating after scission. This appears not to be the case for fusion-fission. The fall in vpre for asymmetric mass-splits suggests that the dynamical time scale is shorter: this will influence fission mass-distributions.