Eur. Phys. J. A (2005) 24: 373-378
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2004-10237-y

Original Article

Angular momenta of fission fragments in the α-accompanied fission of ²⁵²Cf

¹ Department of Nuclear Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
² Department of Physics, Vanderbilt University, 37235, Nashville, TN, USA
³ Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research, 37835, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
⁴ Flerov Laboratory for Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia
⁵ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA
⁶ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 94550, Livermore, CA, USA
⁷ Instituto de Fısica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
⁸ Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 83415, Idaho Falls, ID, USA

^* e-mail: jandel@comp.tamu.edu

Received: 15 January 2005
Accepted: 22 April 2005
Published online: 27 May 2005

Abstract

For the first time, average angular momenta of the ternary fission fragments ^{100, 102}Zr, ¹⁰⁶Mo, ^{144, 146}Ba and ^{138, 140, 142}Xe from the α-accompanied fission of ²⁵²Cf were obtained from relative intensities of prompt γ-ray transitions with the use of the statistical model calculation. Average values of the angular momenta were compared with the corresponding values for the same fission fragments from the binary fission of ²⁵²Cf. Results indicate the presence of a decreasing trend in the average values of angular momenta induced in ternary fission fragments compared to the same binary fission fragments. On the average, the total angular momentum extracted for ternary fission fragments is ∼1.4 ℏ lower than in binary fission. Consequently, results indicate that the mechanism of the ternary α-particles emission may directly effect an induction of angular momenta of fission fragments, and possible scenarios of such mechanisms are discussed. Further, the dependence of the angular momenta of ¹⁰⁶Mo and ¹⁴⁰Xe on the number of emitted neutrons from correlated pairs of primary fragments was obtained also showing a decreasing dependence of average angular momenta with increasing number of emitted neutrons. Consequences are briefly discussed.