Fission barriers with Weizs\"acker-Skyrme mass model

TL;DR

This paper systematically studies nuclear fission barriers using the Weizs"acker-Skyrme mass model, accurately describing barrier heights for heavy nuclei and predicting barriers for exotic and super-heavy nuclei.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive approach incorporating shell corrections, deformation energy, and residual corrections to improve fission barrier predictions.

Findings

Achieved rms deviation of 0.481 MeV for barrier heights of nuclei with Z≥82.

Highlighted the importance of shell corrections at the saddle point.

Predicted fission barriers for nuclei far from stability and super-heavy elements.

Abstract

Based on Weizs\"acker-Skyrme (WS4) mass model, the fission barriers of nuclei are systematically studied. Considering the shell corrections, the macroscopic deformation energy and a phenomenological residual correction, the fission barrier heights for nuclei with $Z\geqslant 82$ can be well described, with an rms deviation of 0.481 MeV with respect to 71 empirical barrier heights. In addition to the shell correction at the ground state, the shell correction at the saddle point and its relative value are also important for both deformed nuclei and spherical nuclei. The fission barriers for nuclei far from the $\beta$-stability line and super-heavy nuclei are also predicted with the proposed approach.