Microscopic description of complex nuclear decay: multimodal fission

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced nuclear density functional theory to explain bimodal fission and predicts a new trimodal fission phenomenon in certain heavy isotopes, enhancing understanding of nuclear decay processes.

Contribution

It introduces a symmetry-unrestricted density functional approach to describe complex nuclear fission modes, including the prediction of trimodal fission in specific isotopes.

Findings

Bimodal fission explained by multidimensional pathways.

Prediction of trimodal fission in some heavy isotopes.

Enhanced understanding of nuclear decay mechanisms.

Abstract

Our understanding of nuclear fission, a fundamental nuclear decay, is still incomplete due to the complexity of the process. In this paper, we describe a study of spontaneous fission using the symmetry-unrestricted nuclear density functional theory. Our results show that the observed bimodal fission can be explained in terms of pathways in multidimensional collective space corresponding to different geometries of fission products. We also predict a new phenomenon of trimodal spontaneous fission for some rutherfordium, seaborgium, and hassium isotopes.