Fission modes of 256Fm and 258Fm in a microscopic approach

A static microscopic study of potential-energy surfaces within the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-plus-BCS model is carried out for the 256Fm and 258Fm isotopes with the goal of deducing some properties of spontaneous fission. The calculated fission modes are found to be in agreement with the experimentaly observed asymmetric-to-symmetric transition in the fragment-mass distributions and with the high- and low-total-kinetic-energy modes experimentally observed in 258Fm. Most of the results are similar to those obtained in macroscopic-microscopic models as well as in recent Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations with the Gogny interaction, with a few differences in their interpretations. In particular an alternative explanation is proposed for the low-energy fission mode of 258Fm.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Ground-state properties of even-even N=Z nuclei within the Hartree-Fock-BCS and Higher Tamm-Dancoff approaches

We calculate the ground-state properties of well deformed, even-even N=Z nuclei in the region between Ni-56 and Sn-100 within two different approaches, focusing on the binding energy and deformation and pairing properties. First, we employ the Hartree-Fock-BCS (HFBCS) approximation with the Skyrme effective nucleon-nucleon interaction and discuss how the results depend on the parameterization of the interaction and on the pairing force parameters adjusted in various schemes to reproduce the experimental odd-even mass differences. Then, within the Higher Tamm-Dancoff Approximation (HTDA), which explicitly conserves the particle number, we calculate the same properties starting from the HFBCS solutions. The HTDA treatment of the ground-state correlations is converged within a n-particle-n-hole expansion using up to n=4 particle-hole excitations of the pair type (in the sense of Cooper pairs). We compare the ground-state properties calculated in these two descriptions of pairing correlations and deduce the importance of the particle-number conservation in weak pairing regimes. Finally, we extend the HTDA calculations so as to include the proton-neutron residual interaction and investigate the role of proton-neutron pairing on the above ground-state properties.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 11 tables, submitted to Physical Review

Structure properties of 226{}^{226}Th and 256,258,260{}^{256,258,260}Fm fission fragments: mean field analysis with the Gogny force

The constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method is used with the Gogny interaction D1S to calculate potential energy surfaces of fissioning nuclei ${}^{226}$Th and ${}^{256,258,260}$Fm up to very large deformations. The constraints employed are the mass quadrupole and octupole moments. In this subspace of collective coordinates, many scission configurations are identified ranging from symmetric to highly asymmetric fragmentations. Corresponding fragment properties at scission are derived yielding fragment deformations, deformation energies, energy partitioning, neutron binding energies at scission, neutron multiplicities, charge polarization and total fragment kinetic energies.Comment: 15 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C (2007

Global microscopic calculations of ground-state spin and parity for odd-mass nuclei

Systematic calculations of ground-state spin and parity of odd-mass nuclei have been performed within the Hartree--Fock--BCS (HFBCS) approach and the Finite-Range Droplet Model for nuclei for which experimental data are available. The unpaired nucleon has been treated perturbatively, and axial and left-right reflection symmetries have been assumed. As for the HFBCS approach, three different Skyrme forces have been used in the particle-hole channel, whereas the particle-particle matrix elements have been approximated by a seniority force. The calculations have been done for the 621 nuclei for which the Nubase 2003 data set give assignments of spin and parity with strong arguments. The agreement of both spin and parity in the self-consistent model reaches about 80% for spherical nuclei, and about 40% for well-deformed nuclei regardless of the Skyrme force used. As for the macroscopic-microscopic approach, the agreement for spherical nuclei is about 90% and about 40% for well-deformed nuclei, with different sets of spherical and deformed nuclei found in each model.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures (three in color), 1 table, to be submitted to Physical Review

Parity restoration in the Highly Truncated Diagonalization Approach: application to the outer fission barrier of 240^{240}Pu

The restoration of the parity symmetry has been performed in the framework of the Highly Truncated Diagonalization Approach suited to treat correlations in an explicitly particle-number conserving microscopic approach. To do so we have assumed axial symmetry and used a generalized Wick's theorem due to L\"owdin in a projection-after-variation scheme. We have chosen the Skyrme SkM$^*$ energy-density functional for the particle-hole channel and a density-independent delta force for the residual interaction. We have applied this approach in the region of the outer fission barrier of the $^{240}$Pu nucleus. As a result, we have shown that the $K^{\pi} = 0^+$ fission isomeric state is statically unstable against intrinsic-parity breaking modes, while the projection does not affect the energy at the top of the intrinsic outer fission barrier. Altogether, this leads to an increase of the height of the outer fission barrier--with respect to the fission isomeric state--by about 350 keV, affecting thus significantly the fission-decay lifetime of the considered fission isomer

Evidence of Raleigh-Hertz surface waves and shear stiffness anomaly in granular media

Due to the non-linearity of Hertzian contacts, the speed of sound in granular matter increases with pressure. Under gravity, the non-linear elastic description predicts that acoustic propagation is only possible through surface modes, called Rayleigh-Hertz modes and guided by the index gradient. Here we directly evidence these modes in a controlled laboratory experiment and use them to probe the elastic properties of a granular packing under vanishing confining pressure. The shape and the dispersion relation of both transverse and sagittal modes are compared to the prediction of non-linear elasticity that includes finite size effects. This allows to test the existence of a shear stiffness anomaly close to the jamming transition.Comment: 4 pages 4 figure