2016/09/30 by Yusuke Tanimura, Denis Lacroix, S. Ayık +1 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical and nuclear sciences #Computer science #Nuclear physics research studies #Nuclear reactor physics and engineering #Phase (matter) #Physics #nucl-ex #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.118.152501
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 152501 (2017) · Accepted to PRL (Supplement material available upon demand). All calculations made with dynamical pairing
openalex created_date 2016/09/16 · arxiv created 2017/03/21 · openalex publication_date 2017/04/12 · arxiv updated 2017/04/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We show that the total kinetic energy (TKE) of nuclei after the spontaneous fission of 258Fm can be well reproduced using simple assumptions on the quantum collective phase space explored by the nucleus after passing the fission barrier. Assuming energy conservation and phase-space exploration according to the stochastic mean-field approach, a set of initial densities is generated. Each density is then evolved in time using the nuclear time-dependent density-functional theory with pairing. This approach goes beyond the mean-field theory by allowing spontaneous symmetry breaking as well as a wider dynamical phase-space exploration leading to larger fluctuations in collective space. The total kinetic energy and mass distributions are calculated. New information on the fission process: fluctuations in scission time, strong correlation between TKE and collective deformation, as well as prescission particle emission, are obtained. We conclude that fluctuations of the TKE and mass are triggered by quantum fluctuations.