https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202024201008
Comparing fission-product yields from photon-induced fission of 240Pu and neutron-induced fission of 239Pu as a test of the Bohr hypothesis in nuclear fission
1 Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
2 Duke University, Department of Physics, Box 90308, Durham, NC 27708-0308, USA
3 Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, NC 27708, USA
4 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
* e-mail: silano1@llnl.gov
Published online: 28 September 2020
Fission product yields (FPYs) are a uniquely sensitive probe of the fission process, with well established dependence on the species of nucleus undergoing fission, its excitation energy and spin. Thus FPYs are well suited for testing Bohr’s hypothesis in the context of nuclear fission, which states that the decay of a compound nucleus with a given excitation energy, spin and parity is independent of its formation. Using FPYs, we have performed a new highprecision test of the combined effects of the entrance channel, spin and parity on the fission process from two of the most commonly used particles to induce fission neutrons and photons. The 239 Pu(n,f) reaction at En = 4.6 MeV and the 240 Pu(γ,f) reaction at Eγ = 11.2 MeV were used to produce a 240 Pu∗ compound nucleus with the same excitation energy. The FPYs from these two reactions were measured using quasimonoenergetic neutron beams from the TUNL’s FN tandem Van de Graaff accelerator and quasimonenergetic photon beams from the High Intensity γ-ray Source (HIγS) facility. The FPYs from these two reactions are compared quantitatively for the first time.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
