Thermal Expansion - Induced Retardation of Evaporation from Highly Excited Nuclear Systems
Abstract
It is shown that thermal expansion leads to retardation of evaporative decay of highly excited compound nuclei, modeled in the Weisskopf's formalism. The equilibrium matter density is determined from the maximum entropy of an interacting Fermi gas. Already at excitation energies of the order of 6 MeV/nucleon, the mean lifetime increases by 30%, compared to that of the nucleus at ground-state matter density. Results suggest that sequential statistical decay models may be applicable at significantly higher excitation energies than previously assumed.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Nuclear Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..DNP.CH013H