True ternary fission of superheavy nuclei

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility of true ternary fission in superheavy nuclei, where a nucleus splits into three fragments, including two tin-like cores, due to shell effects, suggesting new experimental detection methods.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of true ternary fission with heavy third fragments in superheavy nuclei, highlighting the role of shell effects and proposing experimental detection strategies.

Findings

True ternary fission is possible in superheavy nuclei due to shell effects.

Detection of two tin-like clusters can indicate this fission process.

Three-body clusterization may be observable in heavy ion collisions.

Abstract

We found that a true ternary fission with formation of a heavy third fragment (a new type of radioactivity) is quite possible for superheavy nuclei due to the strong shell effects leading to a three-body clusterization with the two doubly magic tin-like cores. The simplest way to discover this phenomenon in the decay of excited superheavy nuclei is a detection of two tin-like clusters with appropriate kinematics in low-energy collisions of medium mass nuclei with actinide targets. The three-body quasi-fission process could be even more pronounced for giant nuclear systems formed in collisions of heavy actinide nuclei. In this case a three-body clusterization might be proved experimentally by detection of two coincident lead-like fragments in low-energy U+U collisions.