Prompt neutron emission in the spontaneous fission of $$^{246}$$Fm

An experiment on the study of the $^{246}$Fm spontaneous fission was conducted using the SHELS separator. The isotope was synthesized in the complete fusion reaction of $^{40}$Ar beam ions and $^{208}$Pb target nuclei. The neutron yields of $^{246}$Fm spontaneous fission (${\overline{\nu }} = 3.79\pm 0.30$, $\sigma ^{2}_{\nu } = 2.1$) were obtained using the SFiNx detector system. The multiplicity distribution of emitted prompt neutrons was restored using the Tikhonov method of statistical regularisation (${\overline{\nu }}_{r} = 3.79\pm 0.20$, $\sigma ^{2}_{\nu r} = 2.8$). The spontaneous fission branching ratio ($b_{SF} = 0.061\pm 0.005$) and the half-life ($T_{1/2} = 1.50^{+0.08}_{-0.07}$ s) of the isotope were determined. The experimental data were compared with scission point model predictions. An agreement was observed in the average number of neutrons per spontaneous fission process. However, the forms of the experimental and model prompt neutron multiplicity distributions differ significantly.