Production cross section and mass excess of rare fragments produced in in-flight fission by systematics
Phys. Rev. C 112, 054608 – Published 14 November, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/cnz6-98yt
Abstract
The accurate prediction of rare isotopes produced in in-flight fission of a heavy nucleus is a key question to search for new neutron-rich isotopes in the new generation of radioactive ion beam factories. Assuming that the empirical scaling discovered in the projectile fragmentation reaction is obeyed in fissile fragments, i.e., the cross section of the isotopic fragment exponentially depends on its value, we studied the systematic behavior of fragments produced in the in-flight fission reactions of measured at RIKEN and GSI. The results show that of the fissile fragment adheres to the same systematic regularity. This mechanistic universality establishes the -scaling method as a unified framework for predicting fragment yields across the projectile fragmentation reactions and fission reactions, providing crucial guidance for experiments searching for rare nuclei near the neutron-drip line and the nuclear structural evolution. Furthermore, using values derived from the AME2020 atomic mass evaluation, the systematic behavior demonstrates robustness and allows the extraction of mass excesses from newly measured cross sections of neutron-rich isotopes. The mass excesses for 13 new isotopes, that is, , and , were determined via the systematics, showing consistency with the well-known mass models.