• Rapid Communication

Systematic study of fission barriers of excited superheavy nuclei

J. A. Sheikh, W. Nazarewicz, and J. C. Pei
Phys. Rev. C 80, 011302(R) – Published 6 July 2009

Abstract

A systematic study of fission-barrier dependence on excitation energy has been performed using the self-consistent finite-temperature Hartree-Fock + BCS (FT-HF + BCS) formalism with the SkM* Skyrme energy density functional. The calculations have been carried out for even-even superheavy nuclei with Z ranging between 110 and 124. For an accurate description of fission pathways, the effects of triaxial and reflection-asymmetric degrees of freedom have been fully incorporated. Our survey demonstrates that the dependence of isentropic fission barriers on excitation energy changes rapidly with particle number, pointing to the importance of shell effects even at large excitation energies characteristic of compound nuclei. The fastest decrease of fission barriers with excitation energy is predicted for deformed nuclei around N=164 and spherical nuclei around N=184 that are strongly stabilized by ground-state shell effects. For the nuclei Pu240 and Fm256, which exhibit asymmetric spontaneous fission, our calculations predict a transition to symmetric fission at high excitation energies owing to the thermal quenching of static reflection asymmetric deformations.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 22 April 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.80.011302

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

J. A. Sheikh1,2, W. Nazarewicz1,2,3, and J. C. Pei1,2,4

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
  • 2Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Post Office Box 2008, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
  • 3Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw University, ul. Hoża 69, PL-00681 Warsaw, Poland
  • 4Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 80, Iss. 1 — July 2009

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review C

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×