Microscopic Calculations of Spontaneous Fission Half-Lives and Neutron-Induced Fission Cross Sections

Fission potential-energy surfaces are calculated from a microscopic Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov description of the deformed nucleus, fully constrained in the three deformation coordinates c, h, α. The dynamical fission paths along the multidimensional deformation space are determined by applying the classical least action principle. The resulting dynamical fission barriers and spontaneous fission half-life are compared with static calculations and experimental values for ²⁴⁰Pu. Furthermore, microscopic calculations of fission barriers and nuclear level densities are used to obtain neutron-induced fission cross sections. The results for the actinides are compared with existing experimental data in the low energy region ≈100 keV relevant to the r-process nucleosynthesis.