Estimating angular momenta of fission fragments from isomeric yield ratios using TALYS
Authors: Gao Z. , Solders A. , Al-Adili A. , Cannarozzo S. , Lantz M. , Pomp S. , Sjöstrand H. 
Published: June 2024

Angular momenta of fission fragments considerably higher than that of the fissioning nucleus have been observed in many experiments, raising the question of how these high angular momenta are generated. Wilson have proposed a model for the angular momentum as a function of the mass of fission products based on the assumption that the angular momentum is generated from the collective motion of nucleons in the ruptured neck of the fissioning system. This assumption has caused a lot of debate in the community.

To estimate the angular momenta of fission fragments based on the observed isomeric yield ratios in 25-MeV proton-induced fission of U238.

A surrogate model of the fission code general description of fission observables (GEF) has been developed to generate properties of primary fission fragments. Based on the excitation energy and angular momentum of fission fragments from GEF, an energy-versus-angular-momentum matrix is reconstructed using a set of parameters. With such matrices as input, the reaction code TALYS is used to calculate the deexcitation of the fission fragments, including the population of the isomers, from which the isomeric yield ratios are obtained. By varying one of the parameters, the root-mean-square angular momentum (Jrms), which determines the angular momentum distribution of the matrix, Jrms-dependent isomeric yield ratios are obtained. Considering all primary fission fragments contributing to the isomeric yield ratio for a given fission product, the average angular momentum of those fragments is estimated.

Data of 31 isomeric yield ratios in 25-MeV proton-induced fission of U238 were analyzed. From the analysis, the average Jrms, equivalent to average angular momentum Jav, with uncertainties are obtained for 24 fission products, while in seven cases no conclusive result for the angular momentum could be obtained. Furthermore, considering the neutron emissions of the primary fission fragments, the average angular momentum as a function of the average mass number of the primary fission fragment was estimated.

A mass dependency of the average angular momentum is observed in the proton-induced fission of U238. Moreover, the average angular momenta for mass numbers larger than 131 could be fairly well described by the parametrization proposed by Wilson However, the average angular momenta of Sn130 and Te131 cannot be described by Wilson's model, which suggests a different lower limit for the validation of the parametrization in the model. In general, higher average angular momenta for A≥132 are observed in the present work compared to those from Wilson This is likely due to the higher excitation energy of the fissioning nuclei in this work. Furthermore, the first systematic observation of the average angular momenta of fission products in the symmetric mass region is presented. In this region, a decreasing trend with mass number is observed, which cannot be explained by the proposal in Wilson's paper. Thus, a different mechanism is needed to explain this observation.

Published by the American Physical Society2024