On the Division of Nuclear Charge in Fission
Open Access
- 1 July 1947
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 72 (1) , 7-15
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrev.72.7
Abstract
The theory of the most probable charge number of a fission fragment of given mass number is examined. Two hypotheses previously suggested are (1) that the charges divide in the same ratio as the masses and (2) that the most probable charges correspond to minimum energy of two droplets in contact. These hypotheses predict results at variance with each other and with preliminary experiments. In this paper the actual division of charge is calculated for the final configuration of spheres in contact on the basis of a general nuclear model in which the charge distribution in the nucleus is non-uniform. The tendency of the protons to spread outward results in the smaller fragment of an asymmetric fission having a greater proton-neutron ratio than the larger fragment. In the most probable division (mass ratio 2:3) the most probable partners (of odd mass number) should both have chain lengths equal to 3.6. In the case of a 1:2 mass ratio, the probable chain lengths of the light and heavy partners should be 2.5 and 4.1, respectively. Data on the independent fractional yields of particular chain members are found to lie near a smooth (error) curve when plotted with the aid of the theoretical results.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
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