On the influence of nuclear forces on Coulomb fission

Abstract

The influence of nuclear forces on Coulomb fission cross sections is studied in a classical dynamical model and within the quantum-mechanical methods of Coulomb excitation. As examples, the cases of 84Kr, 132Xe, 148Nd, and 222Rn incident on 238U are studied. The nuclear forces counteract the Coulomb force strongly and shift the barrier towards lower energies. Therefore in this region the average excitation energies decrease with increasing incident ion energy. A similar situation holds for the Coulomb fission cross sections, which show a distinct maximum. They are rather large and vary between 1 and 50 mb/sr for backward scattering.