Spontaneous fission of 246Fm

Abstract

An experiment on the study of the 246 Fm spontaneous fission was conducted using the SHELS separator. The isotope was synthesized in the complete fusion reaction of 40 Ar beam ions and 208 Pb target nuclei. The neutron yields of 246 Fm spontaneous fission (ν = 3.79 ± 0.30, σ 2 ν = 2.1) were obtained using the SFiNx detector system. The multiplicity distribution of emitted prompt neutrons was restored using the Tikhonov method of statistical regularisation (νr = 3.79 ± 0.20, σ 2 νr = 2.8). The spontaneous fission branching ratio (bSF = 0.061 ± 0.005) and the half-life (T 1/2 = 1.50 +0.08 −0.07 s) of the isotope were determined. The experimental data were compared with scission point model predictions. Excellent convergence was observed in the average number of neutrons per spontaneous fission process. However, the forms of the experimental and model prompt neutron multiplicity distributions differ significantly.