Spontaneous fission half lives of 254Cf, 255Fm, and 250Cf

Phillips, L.; Gatti, R.C.; Brandt, R.; Thompson, S.G.

doi:10.1016/0022-1902(63)80125-6

Cited by 28 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…But at times late enough for f ff (t) to be sensitive to the slope of ˙ ff , only two isotopes contribute to fission heating. The first, 254 Cf, has a well-established half-life of 60.5 days (Phillips et al 1963). It is present in all models save frdm.y28, which has no measurable fission.…”

Section: Fission Fragments and Californiummentioning

confidence: 99%

Kilonovae across the nuclear physics landscape: The impact of nuclear physics uncertainties on r-process-powered emission

Barnes,

Zhu,

Lund

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Merging neutron stars produce "kilonovae"-electromagnetic transients powered by the decay of unstable nuclei synthesized via rapid neutron capture (the r -process) in material that is gravitationally unbound during inspiral and coalescence. Kilonova emission, if accurately interpreted, can be used to characterize the masses and compositions of merger-driven outflows, helping to resolve a long-standing debate about the origins of r -process material in the Universe. We explore how the uncertain properties of nuclei involved in the r -process complicate the inference of outflow properties from kilonova observations. Using r -process simulations, we show how nuclear physics uncertainties impact predictions of radioactive heating and element synthesis. For a set of models that span a large range in both predicted heating and final abundances, we carry out detailed numerical calculations of decay product thermalization and radiation transport in a kilonova ejecta with a fixed mass and density profile. The light curves associated with our models exhibit great diversity in their luminosities, with peak brightness varying by more than an order of magnitude. We also find variability in the shape of the kilonova light curves and their color, which in some cases runs counter to the expectation that increasing levels of lanthanide and/or actinide enrichment will be correlated with longer, dimmer, redder emission.

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Section: Fission Fragments and Californiummentioning

confidence: 99%

Kilonovae across the nuclear physics landscape: The impact of nuclear physics uncertainties on r-process-powered emission

Barnes,

Zhu,

Lund

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Baade et al 1956;Fields et al 1956). At that time, experimental efforts established that spontaneous fission is the dominant decay mode of this nucleus with a half-life of 60.5 ± 0.2 days (Phillips et al 1963) and an α-decay branching of 0.31 ± 0.016% (Bemis & Halperin 1968).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Californium-254 and Kilonova Light Curves

Zhu

Wollaeger

Vassh

et al. 2018

ApJL

111

102

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Neutron star mergers offer unique conditions for the creation of the heavy elements and additionally provide a testbed for our understanding of this synthesis known as the r-process. We have performed dynamical nucleosynthesis calculations and identified a single isotope, 254 Cf, which has a particularly high impact on the brightness of electromagnetic transients associated with mergers on the order of 15 to 250 days. This is due to the anomalously long half-life of this isotope and the efficiency of fission thermalization compared to other nuclear channels. We estimate the fission fragment yield of this nucleus and outline the astrophysical conditions under which 254 Cf has the greatest impact to the light curve. Future observations in the middle-IR which are bright during this regime could indicate the production of actinide nucleosynthesis.

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“…15, we show a section of the chart of the nuclides, graphically representing the number of simulations for which each isotope was responsible for all or part of the top 80% of the spontaneous fission heating. We find that in most cases, even at early times, 254 Cf (t 1/2 = 60.5 ± 0.2 days) (Phillips et al 1963) is among the top isotopes contributing to spontaneous fission heating. This is reflected in the behavior of the spontaneous fission heating lines in Fig.…”

Section: Spontaneous Fissionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Modeling Kilonova Light Curves: Dependence on Nuclear Inputs

Zhu,

Lund,

Barnes

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The mergers of binary neutron stars, as well as black hole-neutron star systems, are expected to produce an electromagnetic counterpart that can be analyzed to infer the element synthesis that occurred in these events. We investigate one source of uncertainties pertinent to lanthanide-rich outflows: the nuclear inputs to rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis calculations. We begin by examining thirtytwo different combinations of nuclear inputs: eight mass models, two types of spontaneous fission rates and two types of fission daughter product distributions. We find that such nuclear physics uncertainties typically generate at least one order of magnitude uncertainty in key quantities such as the nuclear heating (one and a half orders of magnitude at one day post-merger), the bolometric luminosity (one order of magnitude at five days post-merger), and the inferred mass of material from the bolometric luminosity (factor of eight when considering the eight to ten day region). Since particular nuclear processes are critical for determining the electromagnetic signal, we provide tables of key nuclei undergoing β-decay, α-decay, and spontaneous fission important for heating at different times, identifying decays that are common among the many nuclear input combinations.

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Spontaneous fission half lives of 254Cf, 255Fm, and 250Cf

Cited by 28 publications

References 5 publications

Kilonovae across the nuclear physics landscape: The impact of nuclear physics uncertainties on r-process-powered emission

Kilonovae across the nuclear physics landscape: The impact of nuclear physics uncertainties on r-process-powered emission

Californium-254 and Kilonova Light Curves

Modeling Kilonova Light Curves: Dependence on Nuclear Inputs

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