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Title: Description of induced nuclear fission with Skyrme energy functionals: Static potential energy surfaces and fission fragment properties

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 239Pu($n ,f$ ) 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,more » should be within the reach of current nuclear density functional theory.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Leeds, Leeds (United Kingdom)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1565368
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1180689
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review C, Nuclear Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 90; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0556-2813
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; Physics

Citation Formats

Schunck, N., Duke, D., Carr, H., and Knoll, A. Description of induced nuclear fission with Skyrme energy functionals: Static potential energy surfaces and fission fragment properties. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.90.054305.
Schunck, N., Duke, D., Carr, H., & Knoll, A. Description of induced nuclear fission with Skyrme energy functionals: Static potential energy surfaces and fission fragment properties. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.90.054305
Schunck, N., Duke, D., Carr, H., and Knoll, A. Thu . "Description of induced nuclear fission with Skyrme energy functionals: Static potential energy surfaces and fission fragment properties". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.90.054305. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1565368.
@article{osti_1565368,
title = {Description of induced nuclear fission with Skyrme energy functionals: Static potential energy surfaces and fission fragment properties},
author = {Schunck, N. and Duke, D. and Carr, H. and Knoll, A.},
abstractNote = {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 239Pu($n ,f$ ) 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.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevC.90.054305},
journal = {Physical Review C, Nuclear Physics},
number = 5,
volume = 90,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Thu Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}

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Cited by: 73 works
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