Superasymmetric fission of heavy nuclei induced by intermediate-energy protons

Abstract

In this work we present the results for the investigation of intermediate-mass fragment (IMF) production with the proton-induced reaction at 660 MeV on ${}^{238}$U and ${}^{237}$Np target. The data were obtained with the LNR Phasotron U-400M Cyclotron at Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia. A total of 93 isotopes, in the mass range of $30<A<200$, were unambiguously identified with high precision. The fragment production cross sections were obtained by means of the induced-activation method in an off-line analysis. Mass-yield distributions were derived from the data and compared with the results of the simulation code CRISP for multimodal fission. A discussion of the superasymmetric fragment production mechanism is also given.