Cold fission

{{Short description|Fission events that generate no neutrons or gamma rays}}

{{Distinguish|cold fusion}}

Cold fission or cold nuclear fission is defined as involving fission events for which fission fragments have such low excitation energy that no neutrons or gammas are emitted.

Cold fission events have so low a probability of occurrence that it is necessary to use a high-flux nuclear reactor to study them.

According to research first published in 1981, the first observation of cold fission events was in experiments on fission induced by thermal neutrons of uranium 233, uranium 235,C. Signarbieux et al.. [http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/jpa-00231968/en/ "Evidence for nucleon pair breaking even in the coldest scission configurations of ²³⁴U and ²³⁶U"], Journal de Physique Lettres Vol 42, No 19 /1981, {{doi|10.1051/jphyslet:019810042019043700}}, pp. 437-440 and plutonium 239M. Montoya. [https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01415636 "Mass and kinetic energy distribution in cold fission of ²³³U, ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu induced by thermal neutrons"], Zeitschrift für Physik A, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, Vol 319, No 2 / June, 1984, {{doi|10.1007/BF01415636}}, pp. 219-225 using the high-flux reactor at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. Other experiments on cold fission were also done involving curium 248A Sandulescu et al. [http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0954-3899/22/7/003 "The cold fission of 248Cm"], Journal of Physics. G: Nuclear and Particle. Physics, Volume 22/ 1996, {{doi|10.1088/0954-3899/22/7/003}}, pp. L87-L94 and californium 252.S Misicu et al. [http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0954-3899/28/11/309 "Orientations of fragments emitted in binary cold fission of 252Cf"], Journal Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Volume 28 /October, 2002, {{doi|10.1088/0954-3899/28/11/309}}, pp. 2861-2874 A unified approach of cluster decay, alpha decay and cold fission was developed by Dorin N. Poenaru et al.Dorin N Poenaru et al. [https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01290499 "Cold fission as heavy ion emission"], Zeitschrift für Physik A, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, Vol 328, No 3 / 1987, {{doi|10.1007/BF01290499}}, pp. 309-314Dorin N Poenaru, M. Ivascu, Walter Greiner "Unified approach of alpha-decay, heavy ion emission and

cold fission", Chapter 7 of thed book Particle Emission from Nuclei, Vol. III: Fission and Beta-Delayed Decay Modes (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1989), pp. 203-235. A phenomenological interpretation was proposed by Gönnenwein{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1016/0375-9474(91)90754-T|title = Tip model of cold fission|year = 1991|last1 = Gönnenwein|first1 = F.|last2 = Börsig|first2 = B.|journal = Nuclear Physics A|volume = 530|issue = 1|pages = 27–57|bibcode = 1991NuPhA.530...27G}} and Duarte et al.{{cite journal|doi=10.1103/PhysRevC.57.2516|title=Cold fission description with constant and varying mass asymmetries|year=1998|last1=Duarte|first1=S. B.|last2=Rodríguez|first2=O.|last3=Tavares|first3=O. A. P.|last4=Gonçalves|first4=M.|last5=García|first5=F.|last6=Guzmán|first6=F.|journal=Physical Review C|volume=57|issue=5|pages=2516–2522|bibcode=1998PhRvC..57.2516D|url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/352828}}

The importance of cold fission phenomena lies in the fact that fragments reaching detectors have the same mass that they obtained at the "scission" configuration, just before the attractive but short-range nuclear force becomes null, and only Coulomb interaction acts between fragments. After this, Coulomb potential energy is converted into fragments of kinetic energies, which—added to pre-scission kinetic energies—is measured by detectors.

The fact that cold fission preserves nuclear mass until the fission fragments reach the detectors permits the experimenter to better determine the fission dynamics, especially the aspects related to Coulomb and shell effects in low energy fissionModesto Montoya, "Shell and coulomb effects in thermal neutron induced cold fission of U-233, U-235, and Pu-239", Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids, Volume 93, Issue 1–4 March 1986, pages 9 - 12{{Cite journal | doi=10.1007/BF01294620| title=Coulomb effects in low energy fission| year=1986| last1=Montoya| first1=M.| last2=Hasse| first2=R. W.| last3=Koczon| first3=P.| journal=Zeitschrift für Physik A| volume=325| issue=3| pages=357–362| bibcode=1986ZPhyA.325..357M| s2cid=119745507}} and nucleon pair breaking. Adopting several theoretical assumptions about scission configuration one can calculate the maximal value of kinetic energy as a function of charge and mass of fragments and compare them to experimental results.