Background: Quasifission is the main reaction channel hindering the formation of superheavy nuclei (SHN). Its understanding will help to optimize entrance channels for SHN studies. Quasifission also provides a probe to understand the influence of shell effects in the formation of the fragments.
Purpose: Investigate the role of shell effects in quasifission and their interplay with the orientation of the deformed target in the entrance channel.
Methods: $^{48}$Ca$+^{249}$Bk collisions are studied with the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach for a range of angular momenta and orientations.
Results: Unlike similar reactions with a $^{238}$U target, no significant shell effects which could be attributed to $^{208}$Pb "doubly-magic" nucleus are found. However, the octupole deformed shell gap at $N=56$ seems to strongly influence quasifission in the most central collisions.
Conclusions: Shell effects similar to those observed in fission affect the formation of quasifission fragments. Mass-angle correlations could be used to experimentally isolate the fragments influenced by $N=56$ octupole shell gaps.
The anisotropy in the angular distribution of the fusion-fission and quasifission fragments for the $^{16}$O+$^{238}$U, $^{19}$F+$^{208}$Pb and $^{32}$S+$^{208}$Pb reactions is studied by analyzing the angular momentum distributions of the dinuclear system and compound nucleus which are formed after capture and complete fusion, respectively. The orientation angles of axial symmetry axes of colliding nuclei to the beam direction are taken into account for the calculation of the variance of the projection of the total spin onto the fission axis. It is shown that the deviation of the experimental…
The yields of evaporation residues, fusion-fission and quasifission fragments in the $^{48}$Ca+$^{144,154}$Sm and $^{16}$O+$^{186}$W reactions are analyzed in the framework of the combined theoretical method based on the dinuclear system concept and advanced statistical model. The measured yields of evaporation residues for the $^{48}$Ca+$^{154}$Sm reaction can be well reproduced. The measured yields of fission fragments are decomposed into contributions coming from fusion-fission, quasifission, and fast-fission. The decrease in the measured yield of quasifission fragments in $^{48}$Ca+$^{154}…
The mixing of the quasifission component to the fissionlike cross section causes ambiguity in the quantitative estimation of the complete fusion cross section from the observed angular and mass distributions of the binary products. We show that the partial cross section of quasifission component of binary fragments covers the whole range of the angular momentum values leading to capture. The calculated angular momentum distributions for the compound nucleus and dinuclear system going to quasifission may overlap: competition between complete fusion and quasifission takes place at all values of …
The probability of the formation and decay of a dinuclear system is investigated for a wide range of relative orbital angular momentum values. The mass and angular distributions of the quasifission fragments are studied to understand the reaction mechanisms of the heavy ion collision of $^{78}$Kr(10$A$ MeV) + $^{40}$Ca within dinuclear system model. The quasifission products are found to contribute to the mass-symmetric region of the mass distribution in collisions with a large orbital angular momentum. The analysis of mass and angular distributions of quasifission fragments shows the possibil…
The fusion excitation function is the important quantity in planning experiments for the synthesis of superheavy elements. Its values seem to be determined by the experimental study of the hindrance to complete fusion by the observation of mass, angular and energy distributions of the fissionlike fragments. There is ambiguity in establishment of the reaction mechanism leading to the observed binary fissionlike fragments. The fissionlike fragments can be produced in the quasifission, fast fission, and fusion-fission processes which have overlapping in the mass (angular, kinetic energy) distribu…
The angular distributions of fission fragments for the $^{32}$S+$^{184}$W reaction at center-of-mass energies of 118.8, 123.1, 127.3, 131.5, 135.8, 141.1 and 144.4 MeV were measured. The experimental fission excitation function is obtained. The fragment angular anisotropy ($\mathcal{A}_{\rm exp}$) is found by extrapolating the each fission angular distributions. The measured fission cross sections of the $^{32}$S+$^{182,184}$W reaction are decomposed into fusion-fission, quasifission and fast fission contributions by the dinuclear system model. The total evaporation residue excitation function…
Measurements of mass-angle distributions (MADs) for Cr + W reactions, providing a wide range in the neutron-to-proton ratio of the compound system, (N/Z)CN, have allowed for the dependence of quasifission on the (N/Z)CN to be determined in a model-independent way. Previous experimental and theoretical studies had produced conflicting conclusions. The experimental MADs reveal an increase in contact time and mass evolution of the quasifission fragments with increasing (N/Z)CN, which is indicative of an increase in the fusion probability. The experimental results are in agreement with microscopic…
Background: Formation of a fully equilibrated compound nucleus is a critical step in the heavy-ion fusion reaction mechanism but can be hindered by orders of magnitude by quasifission, a process in which the dinuclear system breaks apart prior to full equilibration. To provide a complete description of heavy-ion fusion it is important to characterize the quasifission process. In particular, the impact of changing the neutron-richness of the quasifission process is not well known. A previous study of Cr + W reactions at a constant 13 % above the Coulomb barrier concluded that an increase in neu…
Background: At energies near the Coulomb barrier, capture reactions in heavy-ion collisions result either in fusion or in quasifission. The former produces a compound nucleus in statistical equilibrium, while the second leads to a reseparation of the fragments after partial mass equilibration without formation of a compound nucleus. Extracting the compound nucleus formation probability is crucial to predict superheavy-element formation cross-sections. It requires a good knowledge of the fragment angular distribution which itself depends on quantities such as moments of inertia and excitation e…
Background: Multinucleon transfer (MNT) and quasifission (QF) processes are dominant processes in low-energy collisions of two heavy nuclei. They are expected to be useful to produce neutron-rich unstable nuclei. Nuclear dynamics leading to these processes depends sensitively on nuclear properties such as deformation and shell structure. Purpose: We elucidate reaction mechanisms of MNT and QF processes involving heavy deformed nuclei, making detailed comparisons between microscopic time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) calculations and measurements for the $^{64}$Ni+$^{238}$U reaction. Methods: T…
Shell effects in quasifission toward $^{180} \mathrm{Hg}$: insights into fission asymmetric modes
Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学中法核工程与技术学院）；Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo（东京大学理学研究科物理学系）；Quark Nuclear Science Institute, The University of Tokyo（东京大学夸克核科学研究所）；RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS)（理化学研究所交叉理论数学科学中心（iTHEMS））；Key Laboratory of Nuclear Data, China Institute of Atomic Energy（中国原子能科学研究院核数据重点实验室）
Quantum shell effects drive many aspects of many-body quantal systems and their interactions. Among these are the quasifission reactions that impede the formation of a compound nucleus in superheavy element (SHE) searches. Fragment production in quasifission is influenced by shell effects as a nontrivial manifestation of microscopic dynamics hindering the full equilibration of the composite system to form the compound nucleus. In this Letter, we use the microscopic time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) theory to study 48Ca+249Bk collisions to investigate the influence of the tensor component of t…
To disentangle the role of shell effects and dynamics, fission fragment mass distributions of $^{191}$Au, a nucleus in the newly identified island of mass asymmetric fission in the sub-lead region, have been measured down to excitation energy of $\approx$20 MeV above the fission barrier via two different entrance channels, viz. $^{16}$O+$^{175}$Lu and $^{37}$Cl+$^{154}$Sm reactions. Apart from having signature of the shell effects in both the cases, clear experimental evidence of quasifission has been observed in the mass distributions of the Cl induced reaction, that has also been substantiat…
Background: Synthesis of superheavy elements (SHE) with fusion-evaporation reactions is strongly hindered by the quasifission (QF) mechanism which prevents the formation of an equilibrated compound nucleus and which depends on the structure of the reactants. New SHE have been recently produced with doubly-magic $^{48}$Ca beams. However, SHE synthesis experiments with single-magic $^{50}$Ti beams have so far been unsuccessful. Purpose: In connection with experimental searches for $Z=117,119$ superheavy elements, we perform a theoretical study of fusion and quasifission mechanisms in $^{48}$Ca,$…
Recent experiments revealed intriguing similarities in the $^{64}$Ni+$^{207}$Pb, $^{132}$Xe+$^{208}$Pb, and $^{238}$U+$^{238}$U reactions at energies around the Coulomb barrier. The experimental data indicate that for all systems substantial energy dissipation takes place, in the first stage of the reaction, although the number of transferred nucleons is small. On the other hand, in the second stage, a large number of nucleons are transferred with small friction and small consumption of time. To understand the observed behavior, various reactions were analyzed based on the microscopic time-dep…
The excitation functions of capture, complete fusion, and evaporation residue formation in the $^{16}$O+$^{184}$W and $^{19}$F+$^{181}$Ta reactions leading to the same $^{200}$Pb compound nucleus has been studied theoretically to explain the experimental data showing more intense yield of evaporation residue in the former reaction in comparison with that in the latter reaction. The observed difference is explained by large capture cross section in the former and by increase of the quasifission contribution to the yield of fission-like fragments in the $^{19}$F+$^{181}$Ta reaction at large exci…
We extend a conventional description of the fusion-fission fragment angular distributions by introducing the correlation between compound nucleus states carrying different total angular momenta. This correlation results in the strong anisotropy and mass-angle correlation of fission fragments for compact saddle-point nuclear shapes for which the conventional description predicts almost isotropic angular distributions. The spin off-diagonal phase relaxation timescale, $\simeq 10^{-19}$ sec, obtained from analysis of anomalous fission fragment angular distributions in $^{12}$C+$^{236}$U, $^{16}$O…
A highly specialized two-center shell model has been developed accounting for the splitting of a deformed parent nucleus into two ellipsoidaly deformed fragments. The potential is based on deformed oscillator wells in direct correspondance with the shape change of the nuclear system. For the first time a potential responsible for the necking part between the fragments is introduced on potential theory basis. As a direct consequence, spin-orbit {\bf ls} and {\bf l$^2$} operators are calculated as shape dependent. Level scheme evolution along the fission path for pairs of ellipsoidaly deformed f…
Fission of $^{180}$Hg produces mass asymmetric fragments which are expected to be influenced by deformed shell-effects at N=56 in the heavy fragment and Z=34 in the light fragment [G. Scamps and C. Simenel, arXiv:1904.01275 (2019)]. To investigate both shell-effects and to determine which one has the main influence on the asymmetry in the region of the $^{180}$Hg, we produce a systematic of Constraint-Hartree-Fock calculations in nuclei with similar N/Z ratio than the $^{178}$Pt. It is found that N=56 determines the asymmetry of systems in this region of the nuclear chart.
The Coulomb effects hypothesis is used to interpret even-odd effects of maximum total kinetic energy as a function of mass and charge of fragments from thermal neutron induced fission of 235U. Assuming spherical fragments at scission, the Coulomb interaction energy between fragments (C_sph) is higher than the Q-value, the available energy. Therefore at scission the fragments must be deformed, so that the Coulomb interaction energy does not exceed the Q-value. The fact that the even-odd effects in the maximum total kinetic energy as a function of the charge and mass, respectively, are lower tha…
The quasi-fission mechanism hinders fusion in heavy systems through breakup within zeptoseconds into two fragments with partial mass equilibration. Its dependence on the structure of both the collision partners and the final fragments is a key question. Our original approach is to combine an experimental measurement of the fragments' mass-angle correlations in $^{40}$Ca$+^{238}$U with microscopic quantum calculations. We demonstrate an unexpected interplay between the orientation of the prolate deformed $^{238}$U with quantum shell effects in the fragments. In particular, calculations show tha…
We describe the new version (v2.73y) of the code HFODD which solves the nuclear Skyrme Hartree-Fock or Skyrme Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov problem by using the Cartesian deformed harmonic-oscillator basis. In the new version, we have implemented the following new features: (i) full proton-neutron mixing in the particle-hole channel for Skyrme functionals, (ii) the Gogny force in both particle-hole and particle-particle channels, (iii) linear multi-constraint method at finite temperature, (iv) fission toolkit including the constraint on the number of particles in the neck between two fragments, calc…
Fission of atomic nuclei often produces mass asymmetric fragments. However, the origin of this asymmetry was believed to be different in actinides and in the sub-lead region [A. Andreyev {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 105}, 252502 (2010)]. It has recently been argued that quantum shell effects stabilising pear shapes of the fission fragments could explain the observed asymmetries in fission of actinides[G. Scamps and C. Simenel, Nature {\bf 564}, 382 (2018)]. This interpretation is tested in the sub-lead region using microscopic mean-field calculations of fission based on the Hartree-Fock…
Pseudo-SU(3) shell-model results are reported for M1 excitation strengths in 157-Gd, 163-Dy and 169-Tm in the energy range between 2 and 4 MeV. Non-zero pseudo-spin couplings between the configurations play a very important role in determining the M1 strength distribution, especially its rapidly changing fragmentation pattern which differs significantly from what has been found in neighboring even-even systems. The results suggest one should examine contributions from intruder levels.
The systematic study of isoscalar (IS) and isovector (IV) giant quadrupole responses (GQR) in normal and superfluid nuclei presented in [G. Scamps and D. Lacroix, Phys. Rev. 88, 044310 (2013)] is extended to the case of axially deformed and triaxial nuclei. The static and dynamical energy density functional based on Skyrme effective interaction are used to study static properties and dynamical response functions over the whole nuclear chart. Among the 749 nuclei that are considered, 301 and 65 are respectively found to be prolate and oblate while 54 do not present any symmetry axis. For these …
The origin of the asymmetry in the fragment mass distribution of low-energy nuclear fission is considered from the semiclassical point of view. Using the semiclassical periodic-orbit theory, one can define and quantify the shell effect associated with spatially localized nascent-fragment (prefragment) part of the potential. We investigate the roles of prefragments in the deformed shell effect using a simple cavity potential model but with realistic shape degrees of freedom for describing the fission processes. The results suggest that the prefragment magic numbers play essential roles in deter…
The reaction dynamics of axisymmetric deformed $^{24}$Mg + $^{24}$Mg collisions have been investigated systematically by an isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IDQMD) model. It is found that different deformations and orientations result in apparently different properties of reaction dynamics. We revealed that some observables such as nuclear stopping power ($R$), multiplicity of fragments, and elliptic flow are very sensitive to the initial deformations and orientations. There exists an eccentricity scaling of elliptic flow in central body-body collisions with different deformations…
Core-excitation effects in the scattering of two-body halo nuclei have been investigated in previous works. In particular, these effects have been found to affect in a significant way the breakup cross sections of neutron-halo nuclei with a deformed core. To account for these effects, appropriate extensions of the continuum-discretized coupled-channels (CDCC) method have been recently proposed. We aim to extend these studies to the case of breakup reactions measured under complete kinematics or semi-inclusive reactions in which only the angular or energy distribution of one of the outgoing fra…
Making use of the semiclassical periodic orbit theory (POT), we propose, for the first time, a method to exclusively evaluate the shell effects associated with each of the nascent fragments (prefragments) generated by the neck formation in nuclear fission processes. In spite of the strong indication of such shell effects in asymmetric fragment mass distributions, they could not have been accessed by any previous theoretical approach since most of the single-particle wave functions are delocalized. In the POT, we have found that the prefragment shell effects can be naturally and unambiguously i…
Fission Modes and Fragment Shell Structures in $^{258}$Md$^*$ from Six-Dimensional Langevin Calculations
Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency（日本原子力机构先进科学研究中心）；Department of Pure and Applied Physics, Kansai University（关西大学纯应用物理系）；Joint Institute for Nuclear Research（俄罗斯联合核研究所）；University of Bordeaux, CNRS, LP2i Bordeaux, UMR 5797（波尔多大学）
We compute the final kinetic energies of the fragments emitted in the light charged particle accompanied cold fission of $^{252}$Cf taking into account the ground state quadrupole deformation and the finite-size effects of the fragments and integrating the equations of motion for a three-body system subjected only to Coulomb forces. The initial conditions for the trajectory calculations were derived in the frame of a deformed cluster model which includes also the effect due to the absorbative nuclear part. Although the distributions of initial kinetic energies is rather broad we show that in c…
Nuclear fission of heavy (actinide) nuclei results predominantly in asymmetric mass-splits. Without quantum shells, which can give extra binding energy to these mass-asymmetric shapes, the nuclei would fission symmetrically. The strongest shell effects are in spherical nuclei, so naturally the spherical "doubly-magic" ${^{132}}$Sn nucleus (${Z=50}$ protons), was expected to play a major role. However, a systematic study of fission has shown that the heavy fragments are distributed around ${Z=52}$ to 56, indicating that ${^{132}}$Sn is not the only driver. Reconciling the strong spherical shell…
Dynamical selection of fragment shell effects in spontaneous fission of $^{240}$Pu, $^{232}$Th, and $^{264}$Fm
Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学中法核工程与技术学院）；Key Laboratory of Nuclear Data, China Institute of Atomic Energy（中国原子能科学研究院核数据重点实验室）
The decay of $^{56}Ni^*$, formed in $^{32}S+^{24}Mg$ reaction at the incident energies $E_{cm}$=51.6 and 60.5 MeV, is calculated as a cluster decay process within the Preformed Cluster-decay Model (PCM) of Gupta et al. re-formulated for hot compound systems. The observed deformed shapes of the exit channel fragments are simulated by introducing the neck-length parameter at the scission configuration, which nearly coincides the $^{56}Ni$ saddle configuration. This is the only parameter of the model, which though is also defined in terms of the binding energy of the hot compound system and the g…
Deformation effects on reaction observables of beryllium nuclei from ab initio densities
School of Physics, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学物理学院）；Peng Huanwu Collaborative Center for Research and Education, International Institute for Interdisciplinary and Frontiers, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学交叉前沿国际研究院彭桓武研究中心）；Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich（于利希研究中心先进模拟研究所（IAS-4））
The effects of shell closure in nuclei via the cluster decay is studied. In this context, we have made use of the Preformed Cluster Model ($PCM$) of Gupta and collaborators based on the Quantum Mechanical Fragmentation Theory. The key point in the cluster radioactivity is that it involves the interplay of close shell effects of parent and daughter. Small half life for a parent indicates shell stabilized daughter and long half life indicates the stability of the parent against the decay. In the cluster decay of trans lead nuclei observed so far, the end product is doubly magic lead or its neigh…
Survival of Pairing Correlations and Shell Effects at Scission in Finite-Temperature Nuclear Fission: Implications for Odd-Even Staggering
National Centre for Nuclear Research（国家核研究中心）；China Institute of Atomic Energy, Nuclear Data Center（中国原子能科学研究院核数据中心）；Department of Theoretical Physics, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University（玛丽亚·居里-斯克沃多夫斯卡大学理论物理系）；Department of Physics, Tsinghua University（清华大学物理系）
