Fission of $^{180}$Hg and $^{264}$Fm: a comparative study

TL;DR

This study investigates the fission modes of $^{180}$Hg and $^{264}$Fm, revealing how shell effects influence asymmetric and symmetric fission pathways through potential energy surface analysis.

Contribution

It provides a detailed mean field analysis of both symmetric and asymmetric fission modes in $^{180}$Hg and compares these with $^{264}$Fm, highlighting the role of shell effects.

Findings

$^{180}$Hg fissions asymmetrically due to shell effects.

Symmetric fission of $^{180}$Hg is suppressed by fragment properties.

Comparison shows different shell influences in $^{264}$Fm fission.

Abstract

$^{180}$Hg is experimentally found to fission asymmetrically. This result was not expected as a naive fragment shell effects study would support the symmetric mode to be the most probable. In the present study we investigate both symmetric and asymmetric $^{180}$Hg fission modes at the mean field level using various multipole moment constraints. Potential energy surfaces are analysed in terms of shell effects that shape their topographies and connections to fragment shell effects are made. The non-occurrence of low energy symmetric fission is interpreted in terms of $^{90}$Zr fragment properties. Throughout this study a comparison with $^{264}$Fm and its symmetric doubly magic $^{132}$Sn fission fragments is done.