Macroscopic-Microscopic Fission Yields

¹ Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
² Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
³ Nuclear and Data Theory Group, Nuclear and Chemical Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
⁴ TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A3, Canada
⁵ Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

^* e-mail: mumpower@lanl.gov

Published online: 18 October 2024

Abstract

We utilize the macroscopic-microscopic approach to fission to calculate nascent fragment distributions. Assuming strongly damped shape motion, we run many iterations of a Metropolis random walk across nuclear potential-energy surfaces to obtain sufficient scission statistics. Our nuclear potential surfaces consist of a macroscopic energy from the Finite-Range Liquid-Drop Model (FRLDM) and microscopic terms that arise from the single-particle spectra. We compare our predictions for two major actinides to experimental data. We present global trends from this modeling that manifest as a function of mass number of the fissioning species. We discuss the impact of fission yield modeling on nucleosynthetic outcomes.