A schematic reaction-theory model for nuclear fission

TL;DR

This paper uses a schematic reaction-theory model with the K-matrix formalism to study how nuclear fission observables depend on assumptions about nuclear interactions and configuration space, revealing sensitivities in branching ratios.

Contribution

It introduces a schematic model applying the K-matrix formalism to analyze the dependence of fission observables on nuclear interaction assumptions.

Findings

Branching ratios depend on the residual interaction character.

Additional configurations without new paths have little effect.

Fission observables are sensitive to the nature of the residual interaction.

Abstract

The K-matrix formalism is applied to a schematic model for nuclear fission. The purpose is to explore the dependence of observables on the assumptions made about the configuration space and nucleon interaction in the Hamiltonian of the fissile nucleus. As expected, branching ratios in induced fission are found to depend sensitively on the character of the residual interaction, whether it is pairing in form or taken from a random ensemble. On the other hand, the branching ratio is not much affected by the presence of additional configurations that do not introduce new fission paths.