Correlation of the Competition between Neutron Emission and Fission

Values of the ratio of the fission cross section divided by the total cross section for 3-Mev neutrons are correlated with the fission parameter $\frac{Z^2}{A}$. For compound nuclei excited 8 to 12 Mev above their ground states, the fission width ${\Gamma }_f$ derived from neutron- and gamma-induced fission data increases linearly with $\frac{Z^2}{A}$. The quantity $\frac{{\Gamma }_f}{{\Gamma }_n}$ is independent of energy for a particular nuclide excited between 8 and 12 Mev.