Fission investigations: insights into fundamental nuclear physics for nuclear-energy developments, seminar by C. Rodriguez-Tajes (GANIL)

par M. Carme Rodriguez Tajes (GANIL)

vendredi 20 févr. 2015, 10:30 → 11:30 Europe/Paris

seminar room, 2nd floor (bat 27)

This seminar will explore the potential of fundamental nuclear-physics studies on the fission field for nuclear-energy investigations. Transfer-induced fission measurements in inverse kinematics are proposed to explore the fission of minor actinides and provide accurate data required by the nuclear-energy data banks. In the framework of the surrogate-reaction technique, transfer reactions have been extensively used to produce exotic fissioning systems, which can not be investigated through standard neutron irradiation. Performed in direct kinematics, these experiments usually involve Z<2 projectiles, and they require difficult-to-produce actinide targets. An alternative research program will be discussed, which extends the surrogate-reaction technique to heavier transfer reactions, such as 238U+12C, and provides access to more exotic actinides present on the nuclear fuel. The use of inverse kinematics solves the limitations due to the few available actinide targets. Moreover, the fission fragments emerge with relatively high kinetic energies, which make possible their identification in a magnetic spectrometer and allow the determination of isotopic fission yields [1]. This observable is not only of importance for the nuclear-energy data banks, but also for the investigation of fundamental properties of the fission process, such as the scission point configuration. Special attention will be dedicated to the transfer-induced fission mechanism, in order to better understand the compound nucleus produced in the reaction and its subsequent decay through the different processes in competition, namely, and neutron emission, and fission. In this context, the sharing of excitation energy between the heavy and light transfer partners is investigated thanks to g-spectroscopy of the light target nucleus [2]. Active target detectors are proposed as an innovative setup to measure the anisotropy of the fission fragments and explore the angular momentum of the compound nucleus [3,4] and its influence on the fission probability. On the view of nuclear-energy applications, this investigation aims to explore the validity of the surrogate-reaction technique. [1] C. Rodriguez-Tajes et al, Phys. Rev. C 89 (2014) 024614. [2] M. Caamano et al, Phys. Rev. C 88 (2013) 024605. [3] C. Rodriguez-Tajes et al, ERC ACTAR TPC Kickoff Meeting, Caen : France (2013). [4] C. Rodriguez-Tajes et al, Nucl. Instr. Meth. A 768 (2014) 179.