Fission Dynamics

Abstract

Copyright © 2018, arXiv, All rights reserved. Calculations are presented for the time evolution of 240Pu from the proximity of the outer saddle point until the fission fragments are well separated, using the time-dependent density functional theory extended to superfluid systems. We have tested three families of nuclear energy density functionals and found that all functionals show similar dynamics: the collective motion is highly dissipative and with little trace of inertial dynamics, due to the one-body dissipation mechanism alone. This finding justifies the validity of using the overdamped collective motion approach and to some extent the main assumptions in the statistical models of fission. This conclusion is robust with respect to the nuclear energy density functional used. The configurations and interactions left out of the present theory framework only increase the role of the dissipative couplings. An unexpected finding is varying the pairing strength within a reasonable range has only minor effects on the dynamics. We find notable differences in the excitation energy sharing between the fission fragments in the cases of spontaneous and induced fission and we estimate the neutron emission rates before the fragments are fully accelerated.