The symmetric and asymmetric fission path for 240Pu, 232Th, and 226Ra is
investigated within the relativistic mean field model. Standard
parametrizations which are well fitted to nuclear ground state properties are
found to deliver reasonable qualitative and quantitative features of fission,
comparable to similar nonrelativstic calculations. Furthermore, stable octupole
deformations in the ground states of Radium isotopes are investigated. They are
found in a series of isotopes, qualitatively in agreement with nonrelativistic
models. But the quantitative details differ amongst the models and between the
various relativsitic parametrizations.Comment: 30 pages RevTeX, 7 tables, 12 low resolution Gif figures (high
resolution PostScript versions are available at
http://www.th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~bender/nucl_struct_publications.html
or at ftp://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/pub/bender
