Investigation of deuteron breakup and deuteron-induced fission on actinide nuclei at low incident energies

Abstract

The dominance of the deuteron breakup mechanism around the Coulomb barrier is shown by an analysis of the ${}^{231}$Pa$(d,3n)$${}^{230}$U reaction excitation function, while the same attribute was found within a former assessment for the deuteron-induced fission. The present alternative result is obtained by taking into account, in addition to pre-equilibrium and compound-nucleus processes, the opposite effects of deuteron breakup, namely the decrease of the deuteron total reaction cross section, and the inelastic-breakup enhancement of various deuteron-induced reaction channels.