Coherent bremsstrahlung and GDR width from 252Cf cold fission

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of gamma-ray spectra from 252Cf spontaneous fission, revealing coherent bremsstrahlung from fission fragments and providing the first experimental GDR width, which challenges existing theoretical models.

Contribution

It presents the first measurement of GDR width from fission fragments and demonstrates the presence of coherent bremsstrahlung in spontaneous fission of 252Cf.

Findings

Coherent bremsstrahlung observed and confirmed with theoretical calculations.

GDR width from fission fragments is smaller than predicted by TSFM.

First experimental determination of GDR width in this context.

Abstract

The energy spectrum of the high energy gamma-rays in coincidence with the prompt gamma rays has been measured for the spontaneous fission of 252Cf. The nucleus-nucleus coherent bremsstrahlung of the accelerating fission fragments is observed and the result has been substantiated with a theoretical calculation based on the coulomb acceleration model. The width of the giant dipole resonance (GDR) decay from the excited fission fragments has been extracted for the first time and compared with the thermal shape fluctuation model (TSFM) in the liquid drop formalism. The extracted GDR width is significantly smaller than the predictions of TSFM.