On nuclear ternary fission

Abstract

Prolate ternary fission and, to some extent, oblate ternary and cascade fission have been investigated within the liquid-drop model at finite temperature taking into account the nuclear proximity effects between the surfaces of the nascent fragments. In the whole mass range, the potential barriers are higher in the oblate fission valley. Cascade fission is favoured for light nuclei while prolate fission becomes the most probable with increasing mass. The binary fission barriers are much lower than the ternary ones except for the superheavy nuclei for which they are comparable.