Fission barriers of two odd-neutron actinide nuclei taking into account the time-reversal symmetry breaking at the mean-field level

TL;DR

This study investigates how explicit time-reversal symmetry breaking at the mean-field level affects fission barrier calculations in odd-neutron actinide nuclei, revealing significant configuration dependence and validating the equal-filling approximation at large deformations.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent mean-field approach with particle blocking that explicitly accounts for time-reversal symmetry breaking in fission barrier calculations for odd nuclei.

Findings

Fission barriers show significant dependence on nuclear configurations.

The approach achieves good agreement with experimental data.

The equal-filling approximation is validated at large deformations.

Abstract

Background: Fission barriers of actinide nuclei have been mostly and for long been microscopi- cally calculated for even-even fissioning systems. Calculations in the case of odd nuclei have been performed merely within a so-called equal-filling approximation (EFA) as opposed to an approach taking explicitly into account the time reversal breaking properties at the mean field level- and for only one single-particle configuration. Purpose: We study the dependence of the fission barriers on various relevant configurations (e.g. to evaluate the so-called specialization energy). Besides, we want to assess the relevance as a func- tion of the deformation of the EFA approach which has been already found out at ground state deformation. Methods: Calculations within the Hartree-Fock plus BCS with self-consistent particle blocking have been performed using the SkM* Skyrme effective interaction in the particle-hole channel and a seniority force in the particle-particle channel. Axial symmetry has been imposed throughout the whole fission path while the intrinsic parity symmetry has been allowed to be broken in the outer fission barrier region. Results: Potential energy curves have been determined for six different configurations in U-235 and four in Pu-239. Inner and outer fission barriers have been calculated along with some spectroscopic properties in the fission isomeric well. These results have been compared with available data. The influence of time-reversal breaking mean fields on the solutions has been investigated. Conclusions: A sizeable configuration dependence of the fission barrier (width and height) has been demonstrated. A reasonable agreement with available systematic evaluations of fission barrier heights has been found. The EFA approach has been validated at the large elongations occurring at the outer barrier region.