Fission in exotic nuclei using density functional theory

Historically, most experimental and theoretical studies of fission have centered around the region of actinides near 235U, which includes isotopes of uranium, plutonium, and thorium relevant for reactor physics and stockpile stewardship. Isotopes in this region tend to fission asymmetrically, with the larger prefragment influenced by the doubly-magic shell structure of 132Sn and resulting in a heavy fragment distribution centered around 140Te. However, fission is a common decay mode of nuclei, both lighter and heavier than the actinides. Given the nuclear physics community's interest in rare and exotic nuclei, we have applied nuclear density functional theory to study spontaneous fission primary fragment yields in exotic systems found in other regions of the nuclear chart, including neutron-deficient 178Pt, superheavy 294Og, and neutron-rich nuclei with relevance to the r-process such as 254Pu.