Pair breaking and even–odd structure in fission-fragment yields Original Research Article

The probabilities of single-particle excitations that preserve completely paired configurations of the nuclear proton and neutron subsystems are formulated as a function of excitation energy in the framework of the superfluid nuclear model. These calculations are used to analyse measured data on even–odd structure in fission-fragment yields. Excitation energies acquired at scission are deduced. The strongly differing even–odd structures in proton and neutron numbers are explained within the assumption of thermal equilibrium of intrinsic excitations at scission.