Fission-fragment mass distributions were measured for ^{237-240}U, ^{239-242}Np, and ^{241-244}Pu populated in the excitation-energy range from 10 to 60 MeV by multinucleon transfer channels in the ...reaction ^{18}O+^{238}U at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency tandem facility. Among them, the data for ^{240}U and ^{240,241,242}Np were observed for the first time. It was found that the mass distributions for all the studied nuclides maintain a double-humped shape up to the highest measured energy in contrast to expectations of predominantly symmetric fission due to the washing out of nuclear shell effects. From a comparison with the dynamical calculation based on the fluctuation-dissipation model, this behavior of the mass distributions was unambiguously attributed to the effect of multichance fission.
The simultaneous measurement of the isotopic fission-fragment yields and fission-fragment velocities of U-239 has been performed for the first time. The U-239 fissioning system was produced in ...one-neutron transfer reactions between a U-238 beam at 5.88 MeV/nucleon and a Be-9 target. The combination of inverse kinematics at low energy and the use of the VAMOS + + spectrometer at the GANIL facility allows the isotopic identification of the full fission-fragment distribution and their velocity in the reference frame of the fissioning system. The proton and neutron content of the fragments at scission, their total kinetic and total excitation energy, as well as the neutron multiplicity were determined. Information from the scission point configuration is obtained from these observables and the correlation between them. The role of the octupole-deformed proton and neutron shells in the fission-fragment production is discussed.
Isotopic distributions of fragments from fission of the neutron-deficient ^{178}Hg nuclide are reported. This experimental observable is obtained for the first time in the region around lead using an ...innovative approach based on inverse kinematics and the coincidence between the large acceptance magnetic spectrometer VAMOS++ and a new detection arm close to the target. The average fragment N/Z ratio and prompt neutron M_{n} multiplicity are derived and compared with current knowledge from actinide fission. A striking consistency emerges, revealing the unexpected dominant role of the proton subsystem with atomic number between the Z=28 and 50 magic numbers. The origin of nuclear charge polarization in fission and fragment deformation at scission are discussed.
Reliable neutron-induced-reaction cross sections of unstable nuclei are essential for nuclear astrophysics and applications but their direct measurement is often impossible. The surrogate-reaction ...method is one of the most promising alternatives to access these cross sections. In this work, we successfully applied the surrogate-reaction method to infer for the first time both the neutron-induced fission and radiative capture cross sections of 239Pu in a consistent manner from a single measurement. This was achieved by combining simultaneously measured fission and γ-emission probabilities for the 240Pu (4He, 4He′) surrogate reaction with a calculation of the angular-momentum and parity distributions populated in this reaction. While other experiments measure the probabilities for some selected γ-ray transitions, we measure the γ-emission probability. This enlarges the applicability of the surrogate-reaction method.
Multi-nucleon transfer reaction between 136Xe beam and 198Pt target was performed using the VAMOS++ spectrometer at GANIL to study the structure of n-rich nuclei around N=126. Unambiguous charge ...state identification was obtained by combining two supervised machine learning methods, deep neural network (DNN) and positional correction using a gradient-boosting decision tree (GBDT). The new method reduced the complexity of the kinetic energy calibration and outperformed the conventional method improving the charge state resolution by 8%.
Proton-recoil detectors (PRDs), based on the well known standard H(n,p) elastic scattering cross section, are the preferred instruments to perform precise quasi-absolute neutron flux measurements ...above 1MeV. The limitations of using a single silicon detector as PRD at a continuous neutron beam facility are investigated, with the aim of extending such measurements to neutron energies below 1MeV. This requires a systematic investigation of the background sources affecting the neutron flux measurement. Experiments have been carried out at the AIFIRA facility to identify these sources. A study on the role of the silicon detector thickness on the background is presented and an energy limit on the use of a single silicon detector to achieve a neutron flux precision better than 1% is given.
Fragment mass distributions from fission of the excited compound nucleus 178Pt have been deduced from the measured fragment velocities. The 178Pt nucleus was created at the JAEA tandem facility in a ...complete fusion reaction 36Ar + 142Nd, at beam energies of 155, 170 and 180 MeV. The data are indicative of a mixture of the mass-asymmetric and mass-symmetric fission modes associated with higher and lower total kinetic energies of the fragments, respectively. The measured fragment yields are dominated by asymmetric mass splits, with the symmetric mode contributing at the level of ≈1/3. This constitutes the first observation of a multimodal fission in the sub-lead region. Most probable experimental fragment-mass split of the asymmetric mode, AL/AH≈79/99, is well reproduced by nuclear density functional theory using the UNEDF1-HFB and D1S potentials. The symmetric mode is associated by theory with very elongated fission fragments, which is consistent with the observed total kinetic energy/fragment mass correlation.
During the last decade, the use of inverse kinematics in the experimental study of fission is bringing a wealth of new observables obtained in single measurements, allowing their analysis and their ...correlations. An ongoing application of this technique is the basis of a series of experiments performed with the variable-mode, large-acceptance VAMOS++ spectrometer at GANIL. A recent experiment has been focused on the survival of the nuclear structure effects at high excitation energy in fission and quasi-fission. The full isotopic identification of fragments, the fission dynamics and the ratio between the production of fragments with even and odd atomic numbers, the so-called proton even-odd effect, are shown. The latter shows a different mechanism for fission and quasi-fission that could be used to separate fission from quasi-fission.
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