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We study the evolution of $K^{\pi}=6^{+}$ and $8^{-}$ two-quasiparticle (q.p.) configurations in the isotopic and isotonic chains of even-even deformed nuclei around $^{178}$Hf and their ability to describe series of observed $K$-isomer excitations within the framework of a Skyrme Hartree--Fock--BCS (SHFBCS) approach using SIII interaction and seniority pairing strengths with self-consistent blocking. We apply the approach along the prescription in [Phys. Rev. C {\bf 105}, 044329 (2022)] used to describe $K$-isomers in the actinide and transfermium mass regions. The calculations allow us to identify the regions where proton or neutron configurations or their mixture may be responsible for the $K$-isomer formation. The obtained results provide a detailed test for the Skyrme SIII interaction used and outline the limits of applicability of the overall SHFBCS approach in the regions of well deformed nuclei. The study suggests that similar systematic analysis can be implemented in the heavier mass regions whenever enough data are available., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

Spontaneous fission of 252Cf and fusion-induced fission of 250Cf are investigated within a multi-dimensional Langevin model. The potential-energy surface is calculated in the macroscopic-microscopic LSD+Yukawa-folded approach using the four-dimensional Fourier-over-Spheroid shape parametrization. The dynamical evolution described by the Langevin equation is coupled to neutron evaporation, thereby allowing for the possibility of multi-chance fission. Charge equilibration and excitation-energy sharing between the fragments emerging at scission are evaluated, and their de-excitation is finally computed. The correlation between various observables, particularly the isotopic properties of the fragments, is discussed and compared with the experiment whenever available. The theoretical predictions are generally in good agreement with the data., Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures

A rapidly converging 4-dimensional Fourier shape parametrization is used to model the fission process of heavy nuclei. Potential energy landscapes are computed within the macroscopic-microscopic approach, on top of which the multi-dimensional Langevin equation is solved to describe the fission dynamics. Charge equilibration at scission and de-excitation by neutron evaporation of the primary fragments after scission is investigated. The model describes various observables, including fission-fragment mass, charge, and kinetic energy yields, as well as post-scission neutron multiplicities and, most importantly, their correlations, which are crucial to unravel the complexity of the fission process. The parameters of the dynamical model were tuned to reproduce experimental data obtained from thermal neutron-induced fission of $^{235}$U, which allows us to discuss the transition from asymmetric to symmetric fission along the Fm isotopic chain., Comment: Presented at the Mazurian Lakes Conference on Physics, 2023, Poland

Spontaneous fission half-lives of actinide and super-heavy nuclei are calculated, using the least-action integral, through the WKB tunneling probability of the barrier that appears in the deformation landscape obtained in the macroscopic-microscopic potential-energy surface. This deformation-energy landscape is obtained using a Fourier shape parametrization with 4 deformation parameters, taking into account the nuclear elongation, left-right asymmetry, neck formation and non-axiality degrees of freedom. The collective inertia tensor entering the WKB half-life expression is given through the so-called irrotational flow approach, successfully used in nuclear fission to reproduce observables that characterize the nuclear system in the vicinity of the scission configurations, such as fragment mass or charge distributions. For a comparisons, we have also used the so-called phenomenological mass parameter depending only on the center-of-mass difference of the forming fission fragments. Our approach is shown to be able to reproduce empirical fission half-lives of all here considered nuclei to within 3 orders of magnitude.

Shell corrections to the moment of inertia (MI) are calculated for a Woods-Saxon potential of spheroidal shape and at different deformations. This model potential is chosen to have a large depth and a small surface diffuseness which makes it resemble the analytically solved spheroidal cavity in the semiclassical approximation. For the consistent statistical-equilibrium collective rotations, the MI is obtained within the cranking model in an approach which goes beyond the quantum perturbation approximation based on the non perturbative energy spectrum. For the calculation of the MI shell corrections $\delta \Theta$, the Strutinsky smoothing procedure is used to obtain the average occupation numbers of the particle density generated by the resolution of the Woods-Saxon eigenvalue problem. One finds that the major-shell structure of $\delta \Theta$, as determined in the adiabatic approximation, is rooted, for large as well as for small surface deformations, in the same inhomogenuity of the distribution of single-particle states near the Fermi surface as the energy shell corrections $\delta E$. This fundamental property is in agreement with the semiclassical results $\delta \Theta \propto \delta E$ obtained analytically within the non perturbative periodic orbit theory for any potential well, in particular for the spheroidal cavity, and for any deformation, even for large deformations where bifurcations of the equatorial orbits play a substantial role. Since the adiabatic approximation, $\omega \ll \Omega$, with $\hbar \Omega $ the distance between major nuclear shells, is easily obeyed even for large angular momenta typical for high-spin physics at large particle numbers, our model approach seems to represent a tool that could be useful for the description of such nuclear systems., Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures

The potential-energy surfaces of an extended set of heavy and super-heavy even-even nuclei with $92 \le Z \le 126$ and isospins $40 \le N-Z \le 74$ are evaluated within the recently developed Fourier shape parametrization. Ground-state and decay properties are studied for 324 different even-even isotopes in a four-dimensional deformation space, defined by non-axiality, quadrupole, octupole, and hexadecapole degrees of freedom. Nuclear deformation energies are evaluated in the framework of the macroscopic-microscopic approach, with the Lublin-Strasbourg-Drop model and a Yukawa-folded mean-field potential. The evolution of the ground-state equilibrium shape (and possible isomeric, metastable states) is studied as a function of $Z$ and $N$. Alpha-decay $Q$-values and half-lives, as well as fission-barrier heights, are deduced. In order to understand the transition from asymmetric to symmetric fission along the Fm isotopic chain, the properties of all identified fission paths are investigated. Good agreement is found with experimental data wherever available. New interesting features about the population of different fission modes for nuclei beyond Fm are predicted., Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures

The extended Gutzwiller trajectory approach is presented for the semiclassical description of nuclear collective dynamics, in line with the main topics of the fruitful activity of V.G. Solovjov. Within the Fermi-liquid droplet model, the leptodermous effective surface approximation was applied to calculations of energies, sum rules and transition densities for the neutron-proton asymmetry of the isovector giant-dipole resonance and found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. By using the Strutinsky shell correction method, the semiclassical collective transport coefficients such as nuclear inertia, friction, stiffness, and moments of inertia can be derived beyond the quantum perturbation approximation of the response function theory and the cranking model.The averaged particle-number dependence of the low-lying collective vibrational states are described in good agreement with basic experimental data, mainly due to an enhancement of the collective inertia as compared to its irrotational flow value. Shell components of the moment of inertia are derived in terms of the periodic-orbit free-energy shell corrections. A good agreement between the semiclassical extended Thomas-Fermi moments of inertia with shell corrections and the quantum results is obtained for different nuclear deformations and particle numbers. Shell effects are shown to be exponentially dampted out with increasing temperature in all the transport coefficients., Comment: 83 pages, 39 figures, 4 tables, corrected typos and improved English

The moment of inertia for nuclear collective rotations is derived within a semiclassical approach based on the Inglis cranking and Strutinsky shell-correction methods, improved by surface corrections within the nonperturbative periodic-orbit theory. For adiabatic (statistical-equilibrium) rotations it was approximated by the generalized rigid-body moment of inertia accounting for the shell corrections of the particle density. An improved phase-space trace formula allows to express the shell components of the moment of inertia more accurately in terms of the free-energy shell correction. Evaluating their ratio within the extended Thomas-Fermi effective-surface approximation, one finds good agreement with the quantum calculations., Comment: 9 pages,4 figures

The moment of inertia for nuclear collective rotations was derived within the semiclassical approach based on the cranking model and the Strutinsky shell-correction method by using the non-perturbative periodic-orbit theory in the phase space variables. This moment of inertia for adiabatic (statistical-equilibrium) rotations can be approximated by the generalized rigid-body moment of inertia accounting for the shell corrections of the particle density. A semiclassical phase-space trace formula allows to express quite accurately the shell components of the moment of inertia in terms of the free-energy shell corrections for integrable and partially chaotic Fermi systems, in good agreement with the quantum calculations., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 21st Nuclear Physics Workshop, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, 23rd-28th September, 2014

The Landau Fermi-liquid and extended Gutzwiller periodic-orbit theories are presented for the semiclassical description of collective excitations in nuclei, which are close to main topics of the fruitful activity of S.T. Belyaev. Static susceptibilities show the ergodicity of Fermi liquids. Transport coefficients (nuclear friction and inertia) as functions of the temperature for the hydrodynamic and zero-sound modes are derived within the response theory by using the Fermi-liquid droplet model, in agreement with the shell model for large temperatures. The surface symmetry binding-energy constants are obtained as functions of Skyrme force parameters in the approximation of a sharp edged proton-neutron asymmetric nucleus.The energies and sum rules of the isovector dipole giant resonances are in fairly good agreement with the experimental data. An analysis of the specific structure of these resonances in terms of a main, and satellite peaks, in comparison with the experimental data and microscopic theoretical models, might turn out to be of importance for a better understanding of the values of the surface symmetry-energy constant. The semiclassical collective moment of inertia is derived analytically beyond the quantum perturbation approximation of the cranking model for any potential well as a mean field. It is shown that this moment of inertia can be approximated by its rigid-body value for the rotation with a given frequency within the ETF and more general periodic orbit theories in the nearly local long-length approximation. Its semiclassical shell-structure components are derived in terms of the periodic-orbit free-energy shell corrections. We obtained good agreement between the semiclassical and quantum shell-structure components of the moment of inertia for several critical bifurcation deformations for the harmonic oscillator mean field., Comment: 71 pages, 16 figures, 1 table

We calculate the isospin-mixing parameter for several Tz=-1, Tz=0 and Tz=1 nuclei from Mg to Sn in the particle-number conserving Higher Tamm-Dancoff approach taking into account the pairing correlations. In particular we investigate the role of the Coulomb interaction and the |Tz|=1 pairing correlations. To do so the HTDA approach is implemented with the SIII Skyrme effective nucleon-nucleon interaction in the mean-field channel and a delta interaction in the pairing channel. We conclude from this investigation that the pairing correlations bring a large contribution to isospin-symmetry breaking, whereas the Coulomb interaction turns out to play a less important role. Moreover we find that the isospin-mixing parameters for Tz=-1 and Tz=1 nuclei are comparable while they are about twice as large for Tz=0 nuclei (between 3% and 6%, including doubly magic nuclei)., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables; submitted to Physical Review C

Fusion barriers are determined in the framework of the Skyrme energy-density functional together with the semi-classical approach known as the Extended Thomas-Fermi method. The barriers obtained in this way with the Skyrme interaction SkM* turn out to be close to those generated by phenomenological models like those using the proximity potentials. It is also shown that the location and the structure of the fusion barrier in the vicinity of its maximum and beyond can be quite accurately described by a simple analytical form depending only on the masses and the relative isospin of target and projectile nucleus., Comment: 7 pages, latex, 5 figures

Fusion-fission dynamics is investigated with a special emphasis on fusion reactions at low energy for which shell effects and pairing correlations can play a crucial role leading in particular to multi-modal fission. To follow the dynamical evolution of an excited and rotating nucleus we solve a 2-dimensional Langevin equation taking explicitly light-particle evaporation into account. The confrontation theory-experiment is demonstrated to give interesting information on the model presented, its qualities as well as its shortcomings., Comment: 19 pages, latex, 24 eps-figures

Semiclassical expansions derived in the framework of the Extended Thomas-Fermi approach for the kinetic energy density tau(r) and the spin-orbit density J(r) as functions of the local density rho(r) are used to determine the central nuclear potentials V_n(r) and V_p(r) of the neutron and proton distribution for effective interactions of the Skyrme type. We demonstrate that the convergence of the resulting semiclassical expansions for these potentials is fast and that they reproduce quite accurately the corresponding Hartree-Fock average fields., Comment: LATEX, 25 pages, including 11 eps figures. to be published in Europ. Phys. Journal A

The nuclear binding energies for 28 nuclei including several isotopic chains with masses ranging from A=64 to A=226 were evaluated using the Skyrme effective nucleon-nucleon interaction and the Extended Thomas-Fermi approximation. The neutron and proton density distributions are assumed in the form of Fermi functions the parameters of which are determined so as to minimize the total binding energy of any given nucleus. The present study is restricted to quadrupole shapes, but the neutron and proton density distributions are free to have different deformations. A simple expression for the variation of the nuclear energy with the neutron--proton deformation difference is derived., Comment: 12 pages, latex, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. as rapid comm

We present a comparison of our model treating fission dynamics in conjunction with light-particle (n, p, alpha) evaporation with the available experimental data for the nuclei 126Ba, 188Pt and three isotopes of the element Z=110. The dynamics of the symmetric fission process is described through the solution of a classical Langevin equation for a single collective variable characterizing the nuclear deformation along the fission path. A microscopic approach is used to evaluate the emission rates for pre-fission light particles. Entrance-channel effects are taken into account by generating an initial spin distribution of the compound nucleus formed by the fusion of two deformed nuclei with different relative orientations.

Out of self-consistent semi-classical calculations performed within the so-called Extended Thomas-Fermi approach for 212 nuclei at all even angular momentum values I ranging between 0 and 80 \hbar and using the Skyrme SkM* effective force, the I-dependence of associated liquid drop model parameters has been studied. The latter have been obtained trough separate fits of the calculated values of the strong interaction as well as direct and exchange Coulomb energies. The theoretical data basis so obtained, has allowed to make a rough quantitative assessment of the variation with I of the usual volume and surface energy parameters up to spin of \sim 30-40 \hbar. As a result of the combined variation of the surface and Coulomb energies, it has been shown that this I-dependence results in a significant enhancement of the fission stability of very heavy nuclei, balancing thus partially the well-known instability due to centrifugal forces., Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX (elsart) with 13 embeded postscript figures

We consider here variational solutions in the Hartree-Fock approximation upon breaking time reversal and axial symmetries. When decomposed on axial harmonic oscillator functions, the corresponding single particle triaxial eigenstates as functions of the usual cylindrical coordinates (r, $\theta$, z) are evaluated on a mesh in r and z to be integrated within Gauss-Hermite and Gauss-Laguerre approaches and as Fourier decompositions in the angular variable $\theta$. Using an effective interaction of the Skyrme type, the Hartree-Fock hamiltonian is also obtained as a Fourier series allowing a two dimensional calculation of its matrix elements. This particular choice is shown to lead in most cases to shorter computation times compared to the usual decomposition on triaxial harmonic oscillator states. We apply this method to the case of the semi-quantal approach of large amplitude collective motion corresponding to a generalized routhian formalism and present results in the A=150 superdeformed region for the coupling of global rotation and intrinsic vortical modes in what is known after Chandrasekhar as the S-ellipsoid coupling case., Comment: LaTeX using elsart, 32 pages, 4 included figures, submitted to Nuclear Physics A (revised version)

The fusion process and the competition between fission and n, p and alpha-particle emission is studied. The calculations are performed for nuclei at excitation energies from 80 MeV up to about 300 MeV. The nuclear fission is described by a Langevin equation coupled to the Master equation for particle evaporation. A significant influence of the initial spin distribution on the prescission particles multiplicities is found., Comment: Contributions to the conference "Advances in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas", Thessaloniki 8-12 July 1997, 10 pages in latex

The dependence of the transmission coefficient on the deformation, the collective rotation and excitation energy of the compound nucleus emitting light particles is introduced in the framework of Wei{\ss}kopf's evaporation theory. The competition between fission and particle evaporation is treated by a~Langevin equation for the fission variable coupled to the emission process. Detailed calculations are presented on the decay of different Gd and Yb isotopes at an excitation energy of about 250~MeV. These calculations demonstrate the importance of the effects of nuclear deformation and of the initial spin distribution on the evaporation., Comment: 22 pages in LaTeX and 26 PS-figures included