Cluster description of cold (neutronless) alpha ternary fission of 252Cf

A coplanar three body cluster model (two deformed fragments and an alpha particle) similar to the model used for the description of cold binary fission was employed for the description of cold (neutronless) alpha accompanied fission of 252Cf. No preformation factors were considered. The three body potential was computed with the help of a double folding potential generated by the M3Y-NN effective interaction and realistic fragment ground state deformations. From the minimum action principle, the alpha particle trajectory equations, the corresponding ternary barriers, and an approximate WKB expression for the barrier penetrability are obtained. The relative cold ternary yields were calculated as the ratio of the penetrability of a given ternary fragmentation and the sum of the penetrabilities of all possible cold ternary fragmentations. Different scenarios were considered depending on the trajectories of the fragments. It was shown that two regions of cold fragmentation exist, a deformed one corresponding to large fragment deformations and a spherical one around 132Sn, similarly to the case of the cold binary fission of 252Cf. We have shown that for the scenario corresponding to the Lagrange point, where all forces acting on the alpha particle are in equilibrium, the cold alpha ternary yields of 252Cf are strongly correlated with the cold binary yields of the daughter nucleus 248Cm into the same heavy fragments. For all other scenarios only the spherical splittings are favored. We concluded that due to the present available experimental data on cold alpha ternary yields only the Lagrange scenario could describe the cold alpha ternary fission of 252Cf

Cold fission as cluster decay with dissipation

For cold (neutronless) fission we consider an analytical model of quantum tunneling with dissipation through a barrier U(q) evaluated with a M3Y nucleon-nucleon force. We calculate the tunneling spectrum, i.e., the fission rate as a function of the total kinetic energy of the fragments. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental data obtained for the fine structure of two cold fission modes of 252Cf: 148Ba+104Mo and 146Ba+106Mo. Taking into account the dissipative coupling of the potential function U(q) and of the momentum p with all the other neglected coordinates, we obtain a remarkable agreement with the experimental data. We conclude that the cold fission process is a spontaneous decay with a spectrum determined by the shape of the barrier and an amplitude depending on the strength of the dissipative coupling

Heavy cluster decay of trans-zirconium "stable" nuclides

By using the analytical superasymmetric fission model it is shown that all ‘‘stable’’ nuclei lighter than lead with Z>40 are metastable relative to the spontaneous emission of nuclear clusters. An even-odd effect is included in the zero point vibration energy. Half-lives in the range 1040–1050 s are obtained for Z>62. The region of metastability against these new decay modes is extended beyond that for α decay and in some cases, in the competing region, the emission rates for nuclear clusters are larger than for α decay

Atomic nuclei decay modes by spontaneous emission of heavy ions

The great majority of the known nuclides with Z>40, including the so-called stable nuclides, are metastable with respect to several modes of spontaneous superasymmetric splitting. A model extended from the fission theory of alpha decay allows one to estimate the lifetimes and the branching ratios relative to the alpha decay for these natural radioactivities. From a huge amount of systematic calculations it is concluded that the process should proceed with maximum intensity in the trans-lead nuclei, where the minimum lifetime is obtained from parent-emitted heavy ion combinations leading to a magic (208Pb) or almost magic daughter nucleus. More than 140 nuclides with atomic number smaller than 25 are possible candidates to be emitted from heavy nuclei, with half-lives in the range of 1010–1030 s: 5He, 8–10Be, 11,12B, 12–16C, 13–17N, 15–22O, 18–23F, 20–26Ne, 23–28Na, 23–30Mg, 27–32Al, 28–36Si, 31–39P, 32–42S, 35–45Cl, 37–47Ar, 40–49 K, 42-51. . .Ca, 44–53 Sc, 46–53Ti, 48–54V, and 49–55 Cr. The shell structure and the pairing effects are clearly manifested in these new decay modes

Cold-fission yields at effective excitation energies

The experimental cold-fission yields for the system 233U(nth, f) are analyzed as function of the effective total excitation energy (TXE). The nuclear level density effect is taken into account at higher TXE, in order to benefit by the lower experimental data uncertainty as well as to avoid the quantitative account of the level densities close to fragment ground states. In this way the odd-even staggering which appears in the yields extrapolated at zero excitation energy by using the level densities, vanishes. We conclude that the cold nuclear fragmentation theory including the dynamical model describes well the experimental data

Role of the higher static deformations of fragments in the cold binary fission of 252Cf

We study the binary cold fission of 252Cf in the frame of a cluster model where the fragments are born to their respective ground states and interact via a double-folded potential with deformation effects taken into account up to multipolarity lambda=4. The preformation factors were neglected. In the case when the fragments are assumed to be spherical or with ground-state quadrupole deformation, the Q-value principle dictates the occurrence of a narrow region around the double magic 132Sn, like in the case of cluster radioactivity. When the hexadecupole deformation is turned on, an entire mass region of cold fission in the range 138–156 for the heavy fragment arise, in agreement with the experimental observations. This fact suggests that in the above-mentioned mass region, contrary to the usual cluster radioactivity where the daughter nucleus is always a neutron/proton (or both) closed shell or nearly closed shell spherical nucleus, the clusterization mechanism seems to be strongly influenced by the hexadecupole deformations rather than the Q value

Synthesis of fermium and transfermium elements using calcium-48 beam

The fragmentation theory is used to suggest possible targets to be used with the 48Ca ion beam produced recently at the JINR U-300 heavy-ion cyclotron. Calculations are made for 100 ≦ Z ≦ 116 and are supported by a successful test experiment for the isotope 252102