Does Compound Nucleus remember its Isospin- An Evidence from the Fission Widths

TL;DR

This paper provides experimental evidence that the isospin state of a compound nucleus influences its fission decay widths, supporting the idea that nuclei retain memory of their isospin during fission processes.

Contribution

The study compares fission widths for different isospin states of the same nucleus using multiple reaction data sets, confirming isospin effects in nuclear fission.

Findings

Significant difference in fission width ratios for different isospin states.

Supports the hypothesis that compound nuclei remember their isospin during fission.

Extends previous evidence with new reaction data comparisons.

Abstract

We present an evidence of isospin effects in nuclear fission by comparing the fission widths for reactions involving different isospin states of the same compound nucleus (CN). Yadrovsky suggested this possibility in 1975. Yadrovsky obtained the fission widths for two reaction data sets, namely $^{206}$Pb($\alpha$,f) and $^{209}$Bi(p,f), both leading to same CN, and concluded that "a nucleus remembers the isospin value of the nuclear states leading to fission". We obtain the fission decay widths for both the $T_0+1/2$ and $T_0-1/2$ states of CN by using two appropriate reaction data sets. We then compare the fission widths for the two isospin states of CN. More specifically, we have chosen the combination of $^{206}$Pb($\alpha$,f) and $^{209}$Bi(p,f) same as presented in Yadrovsky's paper and $^{235}$U(d,f) and $^{236}$U(p,f) reaction data sets in this study. A significant difference between the ratios of fission decay widths to total decay widths for different isospin values suggests that isospin plays an important role in fission.