MICROSCOPIC APPROACH TO NUCLEAR FISSION.

A microscopic theory for the decay of a compound nucleus is presented which is formulated in the spirit of transport theories. Its basic physical assumption is the existence of two time scales, a rapid one concerning the creation of intrinsic excitations and a slow one controlling the change of the nuclear shape. This fact is used in the derivation of an equation of motion for the reduced density by applying the so-called Markov approximation. A canonical distribution of the system with regard to the intrinsic excitations at a given shape is assumed as an approximation and a temperature T(q, t) depending on the nuclear shapes and time t is defined so as to render the canonical distribution as realistic as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]