Evidence for nucleon pair breaking even in the coldest scission configurations of 234U and 236U

Abstract

Primary fragment mass yields, measured at the highest values of the kinetic energy released in the thermal neutron induced fission of 233U and 235U, do not reveal any preference for splits into two even-mass nuclei. Moreover our data suggest that the mechanism of pair breaking would take place before scission, namely that the low energy fission would be a strongly dissipative process.