Stochastic model of angular distributions of fragments originating from the fission of excited compound nuclei

The anisotropy of angular distributions of fission fragments and the average multiplicity of prescission neutrons were calculated within a stochastic approach to fission dynamics on the basis of three-dimensional Langevin equations. This approach was combined with a Monte Carlo algorithm for the degree of freedom K (projection of the total angular momentum I onto the fission axis). The relaxation time τ K in the coordinate K was considered as a free parameter of the model; it was estimated on the basis of a fit to experimental data on the anisotropy of angular distributions. Specifically, the relaxation time τ K was estimated at 2 × 10 −21 s for the compound nuclei 224 Th and 225 Pa and at 4 × 10 −21 s for the heavier nuclei 248 Cf, 254 Fm, and 264 Rf. The potential energy was calculated on the basis of the liquid-drop model with allowance for finiteness of the range of nuclear forces and for the diffuseness of the nuclear surface. A modified one-body viscosity mechanism featuring a coefficient k s that takes into account the reduction of the contribution from the wall formula was used to describe collective-energy dissipation. The coefficient k s was also treated as a free parameter and was estimated at 0.5 on the basis of a fit to experimental data on the average prescission multiplicity of neutrons.