Three-dimensional potential energy surface for fission of 236U within covariant density functional theory

We calculate the three-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) for the fission of the compound nucleus U-236 using covariant density functional theory with constraints on the axial quadrupole and octupole deformations (beta(2), beta(3)) as well as the nucleon number in the neck q(N). By considering the additional degree of freedom q(N), the coexistence of the elongated and compact fission modes is predicted 0.9 less than or similar to beta(3) less than or similar to 1.3. Remarkably, the PES becomes shallow across a large range of quadrupole and octupole deformations for small q(N), and consequently, the scission line in the (beta(2), beta(3)) plane extends to a shallow band, leading to fluctuations of several to ten MeV in the estimated total kinetic energies and of several to approximately ten nucleons in the fragment masses.

Automated summary

We use covariant density functional theory to calculate the three-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) for the fission of U-236 compound nucleus, with constraints on axial quadrupole and octupole deformations (beta(2), beta(3)) as well as nucleon number in the neck q(N). Considering the additional degree of freedom q(N), we predict the coexistence of elongated and compact fission modes in the range of 0.9 ≤ beta(3) ≤ 1.3. Remarkably, the PES becomes shallow across a wide range of quadrupole and octupole deformations for small q(N), leading to a shallow band in the scission line in the (beta(2), beta(3)) plane, resulting in fluctuations of several to ten MeV in the estimated total kinetic energies and several to approximately ten nucleons in the fragment masses.