Fission in Rapidly Rotating Nuclei

Abstract

We study the effect of rotation in fission of the atomic nucleus 256Fm using an independent-particle shell model with the mean field represented by a deformed Woods-Saxon potential and the shapes defined through the Cassinian oval parametrization. The variations of barrier height with increasing angular momentum, appearance of double hump in fission path are analysed. Our calculations explain the appearance of double hump in fission path of 256Fm nucleus. The second minimum vanishes with increase in angular momentum which hints that the fission barrier disappears at large spin.