Nuclear-fission studies with relativistic secondary beams:: Analysis of fission channels

Electromagnetic-induced fission of several neutron-deficient actinides and pre-actinides was studied at GSI Darmstadt by use of relativistic secondary beams. The characteristics of multi-modal fission of nuclei around Th-226 are systematically investigated and interpreted as the superposition of three fission channels. Properties of these fission channels have been determined for 15 systems. A global view on the properties of fission channels including previous results is presented. The positions of the asymmetric fission channels are found to be constant in atomic number over the whole range of systems investigated. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.