Ternary cluster decay within the liquid drop model

TL;DR

This paper investigates ternary and binary fission barriers in certain nuclei using a rotational liquid drop model that includes nuclear proximity energy, revealing that ternary fission becomes more competitive at high angular momenta.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation of fission barriers considering nuclear proximity energy within a rotational liquid drop model for specific nuclei.

Findings

Ternary fission barriers become competitive at high angular momenta for light nuclei.

Ternary barriers have higher moments of inertia due to their outer maximum position.

The model effectively captures the influence of angular momentum on fission barrier heights.

Abstract

Longitudinal ternary and binary fission barriers of $^{36}$Ar, $^{56}$Ni and $^{252}$Cf nuclei have been determined within a rotational liquid drop model taking into account the nuclear proximity energy. For the light nuclei the heights of the ternary fission barriers become competitive with the binary ones at high angular momenta since the maximum lies at an outer position and has a much higher moment of inertia.