Signatures of fission dynamics in highly excited nuclei produced in 197Au(800 A MeV) on proton collisions Original Research Article

197Au(800 A MeV)-on-proton collisions are used to investigate the fission dynamics at high excitation energy. The kinematic properties together with the isotopic identification of the fission fragments allow to determine the mass, charge and excitation energy of the fissioning nucleus at saddle. The comparison of these observables and the measured total fission cross section with model calculations evidences a clear hindrance of fission at high excitation energy that can be explained in terms of nuclear dissipation. Assuming a statistical evaporation for other de-excitation channels than fission, an estimated value of the transient time of fission of (3±1)×10−21 s is obtained.