Comparison of Yields of neutron rich nuclei in Proton and Photon induced $^{238}$U fission

TL;DR

This study compares neutron-rich nuclei yields from proton and photon-induced fission of $^{238}$U, revealing significant differences in production rates for certain nuclei relevant to nucleosynthesis.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical comparison of fission fragment distributions and yields for proton and photon-induced fission of $^{238}$U, highlighting differences in neutron-rich nucleus production.

Findings

Proton-induced fission produces nearly two orders of magnitude more intermediate mass r-process nuclei in symmetric fission.

Asymmetric fission yields are comparable for both proton and photon-induced processes.

The study offers insights into nucleosynthesis by analyzing fission fragment distributions.

Abstract

A comparative study of fission of actinides specially $^{238}$U, by proton and bremsstrahlung photon is performed. Relative mass distribution of $^{238}$U fission fragments have been explored theoretically for both proton and photon induced fission. The integrated yield along with charge distribution of the products are calculated to find out the neutron richness in comparison to the nuclei produced by r-process in nucleosynthesis. Some r-process nuclei in intermediate mass range for symmetric fission mode are found to be produced almost two order of magnitude more for proton induced fission than photofission, although rest of the neutron rich nuclei in the asymmetric mode are produced in comparable proportion for both the processes.