Exploring total fission cross sections of neutron- and proton-induced reactions of exotic nuclei at relativistic energies using the INCL-ABLA++ models

TL;DR

This study benchmarks and improves the INCL-ABLA++ models for predicting total fission cross sections of neutron- and proton-induced reactions on exotic nuclei at relativistic energies, confirming their accuracy and extending their application.

Contribution

The paper enhances the INCL-ABLA++ models by updating particle separation energies and fission barrier corrections, enabling accurate predictions for exotic heavy fissile nuclei.

Findings

Good agreement with experimental data for proton and neutron-induced fission cross sections.

Model improvements increase predictive capability for nuclei far from stability.

Framework successfully applied to exotic nuclei with mass A > 155.

Abstract

Spallation-induced fission reactions, in combination with state-of-the-art dynamical calculations, provide a robust framework for studying the nuclear dissipation mechanism in nuclear matter over a wide range of deformations. Experimental datasets of neutron- and proton-induced fission, accumulated over the last decades, cover a wide range of nuclei from the pre-actinide to the actinide region. In this work, these datasets are used to benchmark the dynamical Li\`ege intranuclear cascade model INCL++ integrated with the ABLA++ de-excitation code, which has been improved by updating the calculation of particle separation energies to the atomic mass evaluation (AME2020) and incorporating phenomenological corrections to enhance the description of fission-barrier heights. The results show good agreement with the available experimental data of total fission cross sections induced by protons and neutrons, thereby confirming the applicability and predictive capability of these models. Moreover, the improved framework is used to investigate the fission cross sections of exotic heavy fissile nuclei, far from the valley of stability, with masses $A > 155$.