An asymmetric fission island driven by shell effects in light fragments

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Morfouace, P.; Taieb, J.; Chatillon, A.; Audouin, L.; Blanchon, G.; Bernard, R. N.; Dubray, N.; Pillet, N.; Regnier, D.; Alvarez-Pol, H.; Amjad, F.; Andre, P.; Authelet, G.; Atar, L.; Aumann, T.; Benlliure, J.; Boretzky, K.; Bott, L.; Brecelj, T.; Caesar, C.; Carpentier, P.; Casarejos, E.; Cederkall, J.; Corsi, A.; Cortina-Gil, D.; Cvetinovic, A.; De Filippo, E.; Dickel, T.; Feijoo, M.; Fonseca, L. M.; Galaviz, D.; Garcia-Jimenez, G.; Gasparic, I.; Geraci, E. I.; Gernhaeuser, R.; Gnoffo, B.; Goebel, K.; Grana-Gonzalez, A.; Haettner, E.; Hartig, A. -l.; Heil, M.; Heinz, A.; Hensel, T.; Holl, M.; Hornung, C.; Horvat, A.; Jedele, A.; Malenica, D. Jelavic; Jenegger, T.; Ji, L.; Johansson, H. T.; Jonson, B.; Jurado, B.; Kalantar-Nayestanaki, N.; Kazantseva, E.; Kelic-Heil, A.; Kiselev, O. A.; Klenze, P.; Knobel, R.; Korper, D.; Kostyleva, D.; Kroll, T.; Kuzminchuk, N.; Laurent, B.; Lihtar, I.; Litvinov, Yu. A.; Loeher, B.; Martorana, N. S.; Mauss, B.; Morales, S. Murillo; Muecher, D.; Mukha, I.; Nacher, E.; Obertelli, A.; Pagano, E. V.; Panin, V.; Park, J.; Paschalis, S.; Petri, M.; Pietri, S.; Pirrone, S.; Politi, G.; Ponnath, L.; Revel, A.; Rhee, H. -b.; Rodriguez-Sanchez, J. L.; Rose, L.; Rossi, D.; Roy, P.; Russotto, P.; Scheidenberger, C.; Scheit, H.; Simon, H.; Storck-Dutine, S.; Stott, A.; Sun, Y. L.; Surder, C.; Tanaka, Y. K.; Taniuchi, R.; Tengblad, O.; Tisma, I.; Tornqvist, H. T.; Trimarchi, M.; Velardita, S.; Vesic, J.; Voss, B.; Wamers, F.; Weick, H.; Wienholtz, F.; Zhao, J.; Zhukov, M.
• 署名单位: CEA; Universite Paris Saclay; CEA; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Paris Saclay; CEA; Universidade de Santiago de Compostela; Helmholtz Association; GSI Helmholtz-Center for Heavy Ion Research; Technical University of Darmstadt; Helmholtz Association; GSI Helmholtz-Center for Heavy Ion Research; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Instituto de Fisica Corpuscular (IFIC); University of Valencia; Goethe University Frankfurt; Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts (SASA); Jozef Stefan Institute; Universidade de Vigo; Lund University; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN); Justus Liebig University Giessen; Universidade Federal Fluminense; Laboratorio de Instrumentacao e Fisica Experimental de Particulas; Universidade de Lisboa; University of Catania; Technical University of Munich; Chalmers University of Technology; Helmholtz Association; Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite de Bordeaux; University of Groningen; University of York - UK; University of Guelph; University of Cologne; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN); Institute for Basic Science - Korea (IBS); Universidade da Coruna; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Instituto de Estructura de la Materia (IEM); University of Messina
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-1069
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08882-7
• 发表日期: 2025-05-08
• 关键词: excited nuclei; heavy; hg-180; hg-190; mechanism; fusion

摘要

Nuclear fission leads to the splitting of a nucleus into two fragments(1,2). Studying the distribution of the masses and charges of the fragments is essential for establishing the fission mechanisms and refining the theoretical models(3,4). It has value for our understanding of r-process nucleosynthesis(5,6), in which the fission of nuclei with extreme neutron-to-proton ratios is pivotal for determining astrophysical abundances and understanding the origin of the elements(7) and for energy applications(8,9). Although the asymmetric distribution of fragments is well understood for actinides (elements in the periodic table with atomic numbers from 89 to 103) based on shell effects(10), symmetric fission governs the scission process for lighter elements. However, unexpected asymmetric splits have been observed in neutron-deficient exotic nuclei(11), prompting extensive further investigations. Here we present measurements of the charge distributions of fission fragments for 100 exotic fissioning systems, 75 of which have never been measured, and establish a connection between the neutron-deficient sub-lead region and the well-understood actinide region. These new data comprehensively map the asymmetric fission island and provide clear evidence for the role played by the deformed Z = 36 proton shell of the light fragment in the fission of sub-lead nuclei. Our dataset will help constrain the fission models used to estimate the fission properties of nuclei with extreme neutron-to-proton ratios for which experimental data are unavailable.