Related papers: Splitting the atom before the atom had been split
The mass and total kinetic energy distributions of the fission fragments in the fission of even-even isotopes of superheavy elements from Hs (Z=108) to Og (Z=118) are estimated using a pre-scission point model. We restrict to nuclei for…
This paper presents a selective historical perspective of fission research over the last thirty-five years while Ray Nix has made central contributions to the field. The emphasis is placed on early studies of the shell stabilized secondary…
This is a survey article to be part of the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics, to be published by Elsevier in the beginning of 2006.
The series of Uranium isotopes with $N=154 \sim 172$ around the magic number N=162/164 are identified to be thermally fissile. The thermal neutron fission of a typical representative $^{249}$U of this region amenable to synthesis in the…
A view on the history and current status of dark matter and dark energy, at a fairly introductory level.
From the microscopic view, the energy partition between two fission fragments are associated with the splitting of wave functions of an entangled fissioning system, in contrast to most fission models using an explicit statistical partition…
The physics case for axions and axion-like particles is reviewed and an overview of ongoing and near-future laboratory searches is presented.
The recent availability of precisely measured fusion cross-sections has enabled the extraction of a representation of the distribution of barriers encountered during fusion. These representations, obtained from a variety of reactions,…
Although the overall time-scale for nuclear fission is long, suggesting a slow process, rapid shape evolution occurs in its later stages near scission. Theoretical prediction of the fission fragments and their characteristics are often…
We explore the unique and fascinating structure of neutron stars. Although neutron stars are of interest in many areas of Physics, our aim is to provide an intellectual bridge between Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. We argue against the…
Nuclear Physics is the branch of physics that deals with the properties and structure of matter on the hadronic level. In this article we review briefly the history of this field, which has a major role in the development of our…
We describe how cosmology has converged towards a beautiful model of the Universe: the Big Bang Universe. We praise this model, but show there is a dark side to it. This dark side is usually called ``the cosmological problems'': a set of…
The story on the early days of the Quantum Ergodic Theorem. Alternative proof, underlying heuristics, physical analogies and interpretations.
Understanding the mechanisms of induced nuclear fission for a broad range of neutron energies could help resolve fundamental science issues, such as the formation of elements in the universe, but could have also a large impact on societal…
The first papers on neutrino oscillations are shortly reviewed.
Modern nuclear theory provides qualitative insights into the fundamental mechanisms of nuclear fission and is increasingly capable of making reliable quantitative predictions. Most quantities of interest pertain to the primary fission…
We describe the fission dynamics of $^{240}$Pu within an implementation of the Density Functional Theory (DFT) extended to superfluid systems and real-time dynamics. We demonstrate the critical role played by the pairing correlations, which…
Nuclear Physics has had its ups and downs. However in recent years, bucked up by some new and often puzzling data, it has become a potentially very rich field. We review some of these exciting developments in a few important sectors of…
Experimental studies of fission induced in relativistic nuclear collisions show a systematic enhancement of the excitation energy of the primary fragments by a factor of ~ 2, before their decay by fission and other secondary fragments.…
In the present work the formal definition of the scission point - the maximal elongation at which the nucleus splits into two fragments - is given. The shape and the deformation energy at the scission point are calculated within the…