SOFIA (Study On FIssion with Aladin) is an innovative experimental programme on nuclear fission carried out at GSI. In August 2012, we used relativistic secondary beams of neutron-deficient actinides and pre-actinides provided by the FRS and studied their fission, induced by electromagnetic interaction, in inverse kinematics. This experiment will provide for the first time complete isotopic yields (nuclear charge and mass) for both fragments over a broad range of fissioning nuclei from 238 Np down to 183 Hg. In this article, we discuss the experimental set-up and present promising preliminary results.

SOFIA (Studies On Fission with Aladin) is a novel experimental program, dedicated to accurate measurements of fission-fragment isotopic yields. The setup allows us to fully identify, in nuclear charge and mass, both fission fragments in coincidence for the whole fission-fragment range. It was installed at the GSI facility (Darmstadt), to benefit from the relativistic heavy-ion beams available there, and thus to use inverse kinematics. This paper reports on fission yields obtained in electromagnetically induced fission of 238 U.

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Total fission cross sections of 208 Pb induced by protons have been determined at 370A, 500A, and 650A MeV. The experiment was performed at GSI Darmstadt where the combined use of the inverse kinematics technique with an efficient detection setup allowed us to determine these cross sections with an uncertainty below 6%. This result was achieved by an accurate beam selection and registration of both fission fragments in coincidence which were also clearly distinguished from other reaction channels. These data solve existing discrepancies between previous measurements, providing new values for the Prokofiev systematics. The data also allow us to investigate the fission process at high excitation energies and small deformations. In particular, some fundamental questions about fission dynamics have been addressed, which are related to dissipative and transient time effects.