New approach to nuclear photofission reactions above 0.15 GeV

Abstract

A simple approach to evaluate nuclear photofissilities at energies above the pion photoproduction threshold has been developed. It is based on the current, two-step model for intermediate-energy photonuclear reactions, i.e. a photon-induced intranuclear cascade followed by a fission-evaporation competition process for the excited, post-cascade residual nucleus. The calculation method (semiempirical by nature) shows that fissility (i.e., total fission probability) is governed by two basic quantities, namely, the first-chance fission probability for the average cascade residual, and a parameter which defines an evaporative sequence of residuals in which the average, equivalent chance-fission probabilities of nuclides belonging to the same generation are located. The netPb photofissility data measured recently in the range ∼ 0.2-3.8 GeV at the Thomas Jefferson Laboratory could be explained very satisfactorily by the present approach.