Even-odd effects and Coulomb effects on minimal excitation energy of fragments from low energy fission

TL;DR

This paper investigates how even-odd nuclear charge effects and Coulomb interactions influence the minimal excitation energy of fission fragments in thermal neutron and spontaneous fission of uranium and californium isotopes.

Contribution

It introduces a scission model that accounts for fragment deformation and Coulomb effects to analyze excitation energy differences based on charge splits.

Findings

Even-odd charge effects significantly impact minimal excitation energies.

Coulomb interactions between fragments influence energy distribution.

The model explains experimental variations in fission fragment excitation energies.

Abstract

This work is focused on even-odd effects on the minimal total fragment excitation energy in thermal neutron induced fission of 233U and 235U as well as in spontaneous fission of 252Cf. In a scission model, taking into account the fragment deformation properties and Coulomb interaction between fragments, the expression of the difference between Q-values referred to even/even and odd/odd charge splits, respectively, on the corresponding difference between the minimal total fragment excitation energy is studied.