Schunck, N, Duke, DJ, Carr, H et al. (1 more author) (2014) Description of induced nuclear fission with Skyrme energy functionals: static potential energy surfaces and fission fragment properties. Physical Review C: Nuclear Physics, 90 (5). ISSN 0556-2813
Abstract
Eighty years after its experimental discovery, a description of induced nuclear fission based solely on the interactions between neutrons and protons and quantum many-body methods still poses formidable challenges. The goal of this paper is to contribute to the development of a predictive microscopic framework for the accurate calculation of static properties of fission fragments for hot fission and thermal or slow neutrons. To this end, we focus on the Pu239(n,f) reaction and employ nuclear density functional theory with Skyrme energy densities. Potential energy surfaces are computed at the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximation with up to five collective variables. We find that the triaxial degree of freedom plays an important role, both near the fission barrier and at scission. The impact of the parametrization of the Skyrme energy density and the role of pairing correlations on deformation properties from the ground state up to scission are also quantified. We introduce a general template for the quantitative description of fission fragment properties. It is based on the careful analysis of scission configurations, using both advanced topological methods and recently proposed quantum many-body techniques. We conclude that an accurate prediction of fission fragment properties at low incident neutron energies, although technologically demanding, should be within the reach of current nuclear density functional theory.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2014, American Physical Society. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Computing (Leeds) > Institute for Computational and Systems Science (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jan 2015 14:47 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jan 2015 14:47 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.90.054305 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Physical Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1103/PhysRevC.90.054305 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:81690 |