Empirical description of beta-delayed fission partial half-lives

L. Ghys, A. N. Andreyev, S. Antalic, M. Huyse, P. Van Duppen

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Abstract

The process of beta-delayed fission (bDF) provides a versatile tool to study low-energy fission in nuclei far away from the beta-stability line, especially for nuclei which do not fission spontaneously. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate systematic trends in bDF partial half-lives. Method: A semi-phenomenological framework was developed to systematically account for the behavior of bDF partial half-lives. Results: The bDF partial half-life appears to exponentially depend on the difference between the Q value for beta decay of the parent nucleus and the fission-barrier energy of the daughter (after beta decay) product. Such dependence was found to arise naturally from some simple theoretical considerations. Conclusions: This systematic trend was confirmed for experimental bDF partial half-lives spanning over 7 orders of magnitudes when using fission barriers calculated from either the Thomas-Fermi or the liquid-drop fission model. The same dependence was also observed, although less pronounced, when comparing to fission barriers from the finite-range liquid-drop model or the Thomas-Fermi plus Strutinsky Integral method.
Original languageEnglish
Article number044314
Number of pages7
JournalPhysical Review C (Nuclear Physics)
Volume91
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Apr 2015

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©2015 American Physical Society.

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