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Structural effects in the production of light particles in fission are investigated. Most of these effects can be traced back to pairing correlations and shell effects and their dependencies on the composition of the fissioning system and its excitation energy. It is shown that the GEF code is able to reproduce most of these features and to explain their origin on the basis of established properties of nuclear matter as well as concepts and laws of general validity. Predictions for systems with scarce or no experimental information can also be made.

We report on the second SOFIA experiment, dedicated to the fission yields of 236U*, analog to 235U(n,f). The measurement is based on the inverse kinematics method, using a relativistic, secondary beam of 236U. Both fission fragments are identified in mass and charge in the SOFIA recoil spectrometer. The obtained isotopic yields are compared with existing spectroscopy measurements and the elemental yields are used to discuss the treatment of the even-odd effect with energy in nuclear data libraries.

SOFIA (Studies On Fission with Aladin) is a new experimental set-up dedicated to accurate measurement of fission-fragments isotopic yields. It is located at GSI, the only place to use inverse kinematics at relativistic energies in order to study the (γ,f) electromagnetic-induced fission. The SOFIA set-up is a large-acceptance magnetic spectrometer, which allows to fully identify both fission fragments in coincidence on the whole fission-fragment range. This paper will report on fission yields obtained in 234,235,236,238U(γ,f) reactions.

The SOFIA (Studies On FIssion with Aladin) experiment aims at measuring fission-fragments isotopic yields with high accuracy using inverse kinematics at relativistic energies. This experimental technique allows to fully identify the fission fragments in nuclear charge and mass number, thus providing very accurate isotopic yields for low energy fission of a large variety of fissioning systems. This report focuses on the latest results obtained with this set-up concerning electromagnetic-induced fission of 236U.

We performed an experiment dedicated to the accurate isotopic yield measurement of fission fragments over the whole range. SOFIA exploits the inverse kinematics technique: using heavy ion beams at relativistic energies, fission is induced by Coulomb excitation in a high-Z target. The fragments are emitted forward and both of them are identified in charge and mass. The setup will be presented, as well as preliminary spectra.

Total fission cross sections and charge distributions of the final fission fragments have been measured at GSI in inverse kinematics for the reactions 208Pb + p,d at 500 A MeV and 182Ta + p at 300, 500, 700 and 1000 A MeV. These data are used to investigate dissipative and transient effects at low deformation and its possible dependences with temperature and fissility.

Two fission experiments have been performed at GANIL using 238U beams at different energies and light targets. Different fissioning systems were produced with centre of mass energies from 10 to 240 MeV and their decay by fission was investigated with GANIL spectrometers. Fission-fragment isotopic distributions have been obtained. The evolution with impinging energy of their properties, the neutron excess and the width of the neutron-number distributions, gives important insights into the dynamics of the fusion-fission mechanism.

The widths of the mass distributions of the different fission channels are traced back to the probability distributions of the corresponding quantum oscillators that are coupled to the heat bath, which is formed by the intrinsic degrees of freedom of the fissioning system under the influence of pairing correlations and shell effects. Following conclusion from stochastic calculations of Adeev and Pashkevich, an early freezing due to dynamical effects is assumed. It is shown that the mass width of the fission channels in low-energy fission is strongly influenced by the zero-point motion of the corresponding quantum oscillator. The observed variation of the mass widths of the asymmetric fission channels with excitation energy is attributed to the energy-dependent properties of the heat bath and not to the population of excited states of the corresponding quantum oscillator.

More than 600 residual nuclei, formed in the spallation of 136Xe projectiles impinging on deuterium at 500 AMeV of incident energy, have been unambiguously identified and their production cross sections have been determined with high accuracy. By comparing these data to others previously measured for the reactions 136Xe + p at 1 AGeV and 136Xe + p at 500 AMeV we investigated the role that neutrons play in peripheral collisions and to understand the energy dissipation in frontal collisions in spallation reactions.

It is now well established that at moderate excitation energies the nucleus temperature does not vary with increasing excitation energy. We show that, as a consequence, two nuclei with different temperatures brought into contact show a rather surprising energy-sorting mechanism where the hotter nucleus transfers all its excitation energy to the colder one. The scission configuration of the fission process offers a unique possibility to observe this phenomenon. The energy-sorting mechanism is clearly reflected by the mean number of prompt neutrons as a function of the fragment mass and by the dependence of the local even-odd effect with mass asymmetry.

A new model description of fission-fragment yields and prompt neutron emission is developed. The yields of the different fission channels and their properties are attributed to the number of relevant states above the potential-energy landscape on the fission path at the moment of dynamical freeze-out, which is specific to the collective coordinate considered. The model combines well established ideas with novel concepts. The separability principle of macroscopic properties of the compound nucleus and microscopic properties of the fragments strongly reduces the number of model parameters and assures a high predictive power. The recently discovered energy-sorting mechanism in superfluid nuclear dynamics determines the sharing of intrinsic excitation energy at scission and the enhancement of even-odd structure in asymmetric splits.

Based on a wide systematics of fragment distributions measured in thermal-neutron induced fission, the even-odd staggering in the fission-fragment element yields is investigated. The asymmetry evolution of the element yield distribution with the fissility of the fissioning nucleus is shown to be for an important part responsible for the decrease of the even-odd staggering with the fissility. The even-odd staggering close to symmetry is shown to be a small contribution to the global even-odd effect, and seems to vary little with the fissility of the nucleus. These experimental observations show that the established interpretation in which the intrinsic excitation energy at scission is accountable for the even-odd staggering amplitude has to be reconsidered.

In the framework of nuclear waste incineration and design of new generation nuclear reactors, experimental data on fission probabilities and on fission fragment yields of minor actinides are crucial to design prototypes. Transfer-induced fission has proven to be an efficient method to study fission probabilities of actinides which cannot be investigated with standard techniques due to their high radioactivity. We report on the preliminary results of an experiment performed at GANIL that investigates fission probabilities with multi-nucleon transfer reactions in inverse kinematics between a 238U beam on a 12C target. Actinides from U to Cm were produced with an excitation energy range from 0 to 30 MeV. In addition, inverse kinematics allowed to characterize the fission fragments in mass and charge. A key point of the analysis resides in the identification of the actinides produced in the different transfer channels. The new annular telescope SPIDER was used to tag the target-like recoil nucleus of the transfer reaction and to determine the excitation energy of the actinide. The fission probability for each transfer channel is accessible and the preliminary results for 238U are promising.

Two fission experiments have been performed at GANIL using 238U beams at different energies and light targets. Different fissioning systems were produced with excitation energies from 10 to 230 MeV and their decay by fission was investigated with GANIL spectrometers. Preliminary fission-fragment isotopic distributions have been obtained. The evolution with impinging energy of their properties, the neutron excess and the width of the neutron-number distributions, gives important insights into the dynamics of fusion-fission mechanism.