Understanding fission fragment mass distributions in a shape-modified random neck rupture model

The variances of the fission fragment mass distributions for the symmetric case, over a wide range of the fissility of the compound nucleus have been investigated within the framework of random neck rupture model (RNRM) proposed by Brosa et al. The shape of the fissioning nucleus is generated excluding crel (i.e. c(rel) = 1) in the RNRM model, which results in more continuous shape of fissioning nucleus at boundaries connecting heads to neck in the scission shape. This shape-modified RNRM model has been used to analyse experimental data of mass variances for symmetric mass distributions of 27 systems in a wide region of fissility (0.7-0.95). The average total kinetic energies, < TKE > s, for these fissioning systems have been taken from Viola systematics. The neck radius is an important parameter of the RNRM model and this has been varied to fit the experimental mass variances data. The systematics of the resulting neck radii are studied as a function of fissility and nuclear potential through gamma(0), the surface energy coefficient. It is found that the neck radii that fit the experimentally observed variances of the mass distributions fall into two groups. Empirical formulae have been obtained for the neck radii for these two groups of fissioning systems. Usage of the empirical formulae for neck radii predict the mass variances reasonably well for five test systems and it is shown that these predictions of the neck radii are better than the predictions with the Rayleigh criterion.

Automated summary

This study investigates the variances of the fission fragment mass distributions using the random neck rupture model for symmetric cases. The model excludes crel and generates a more continuous shape for the fissioning nucleus at the boundaries. The empirical formulas obtained for the neck radii predict the mass variances better than the Rayleigh criterion.