The so-called super-short fission mode, in which a nucleus divides nearly symmetrically into two unusually energetic fragments, competes favorably with the standard asymmetric fission mode for spontaneous fission of a limited number of nuclei near Fm264 but it quickly fades away at finite excitations. We investigate the energy-dependent competition between those two fission modes for even fermium isotopes from Fm254 to Fm268, using the Metropolis method to simulate the strongly damped fission dynamics being driven by shape- and energy-dependent level densities. The origin of the super-short mode is discussed and its effects on the fragment mass distribution, the total fragment kinetic energy, and the neutron multiplicity are calculated. Generally good agreement with the available data is obtained.

The transformation of an atomic nucleus into two excited fission fragments is modeled as a strongly damped evolution of the nuclear shape. As in previous studies, it is assumed that the division of mass and charge is frozen in at a critical neck radius of c0=2.5fm. In order to also determine the energetics, we follow the system further until scission occurs at a smaller neck radius, at which point the shapes of the proto-fragments are extracted. The statistical energy available at scission is then divided on the basis of the respective microscopic level densities. This approach takes account of important (and energy-dependent) finite-size effects. After the fragments have been fully accelerated and their shapes have relaxed to their equilibrium forms, they undergo sequential neutron evaporation. The dependence of the resulting mean neutron multiplicity on the fragment mass, ν¯(A), including the dependence on the initial excitation energy of the fissioning compound nucleus, agrees reasonably well with observations, as demonstrated here for 235U(n, f), and the sawtooth appearance of ν¯(A) can be understood from shell-structure effects in the level densities.

We present a consistent framework for treating the energy and angularmomentum dependence of the shape evolution in the nuclear fission. It combines microscopically calculated level densities with the Metropolis-walk method, has no new parameters, and can elucidate the energy-dependent influence of pairing and shell effects on the dynamics of warm nuclei.

By combining microscopically calculated level densities with the Metropolis walk method, we develop a consistent framework for treating the energy and angular-momentum dependence of the nuclear shape evolution in the fission process. For each nucleus under consideration, the level density is calculated microscopically for each of more than five million shapes with a recently developed combinatorial method. The method employs the same single-particle levels as those used for the extraction of the pairing and shell contributions to the macroscopic-microscopic potential-energy surface. Containing no new parameters, the treatment is suitable for elucidating the energy dependence of the dynamics of warm nuclei on pairing and shell effects. It is illustrated for the fission fragment mass distribution for several uranium and plutonium isotopes of particular interest.

We calculate neutron multiplicities from fission fragments with specified mass numbers for events having a specified total fragment kinetic energy. The shape evolution from the initial compound nucleus to the scission configurations is obtained with the metropolis walk method on the five-dimensional potential-energy landscape, calculated with the macroscopic-microscopic method for the three-quadratic-surface shape family. Shape-dependent microscopic level densities are used to guide the random walk, to partition the intrinsic excitation energy between the two proto-fragments at scission, and to determine the number of neutrons evaporated from the fragments. The contribution to the total excitation energy of the resulting fragments from statistical excitation and shape distortion at scission is studied. Good agreement is obtained with available experimental data on neutron multiplicities in correlation with fission fragments from U235(nth,f). With increasing neutron energy a superlong fission mode grows increasingly prominent, which affects the dependence of the observables on the total fragment kinetic energy.

The fusion-evaporation reaction Si28+Ca40 at 122 MeV beam energy was used to populate high-spin states in the odd-odd N=Z nucleus Ga62. With the combination of the Gammasphere spectrometer and the Microball CsI(Tl) charged-particle detector array the decay scheme of Ga62 was extended beyond 10 MeV excitation energy. The onset of band structures was observed. These high-spin rotational states are interpreted and classified by means of cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations.

A highly-deformed rotational band has been identified in the N = Z nucleus 36Ar. At high spin the band is observed to its presumed termination at Iπ = 16+, while at low spin it has been firmly linked to previously known states in 36Ar. Spins, parities, and absolute excitation energies have thus been determined throughout the band. Lifetime measurements establish a large low-spin quadrupole deformation (β2 = 0.46 ±0.03) and indicate a decreasing collectivity as the band termination is approached. With effectively complete spectroscopic information and a valence space large enough for significant collectivity to develop, yet small enough to be meaningfully approached from the shell model perspective, this rotational band in 36Ar provides many exciting opportunities to test and compare complementary models of collective motion in nuclei.

Products of the fusion-evaporation reaction 48Ca + 243Am were studied with the TASISpec set-up at the gas-filled separator TASCA at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany. Amongst the detected thirty correlated α-decay chains associated with the production of element Z=115, two recoil-α-fission and five recoil-α-α-fission events were observed. The latter five chains are similar to four such events reported from experiments performed at the Dubna gas-filled separator, and three such events reported from an experiment at the Berkeley gas-filled separator. The four chains observed at the Dubna gas-filled separator were assigned to start from the 2n-evaporation channel 289115 due to the fact that these recoil-α-α-fission events were observed only at low excitation energies. Contrary to this interpretation, we suggest that some of these recoil-α-α-fission decay chains, as well as some of the recoil-α-α-fission and recoil-α-fission decay chains reported from Berkeley and in this article, start from the 3n-evaporation channel 288115.

Produced in the reaction 48Ca+243Am, thirty correlated α-decay chains were observed in an experiment conducted at the GSI Helmholzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany. The decay chains are basically consistent with previous findings and are considered to originate from isotopes of element 115 with mass numbers 287, 288, and 289. A set-up aiming specifically for high-resolution charged particle and photon coincidence spectroscopy was placed behind the gas-filled separator TASCA. For the first time, γ rays as well as X-ray candidates were observed in prompt coincidence with the α-decay chains of element 115.