PNNL

Abstract

We describe the fissioning dynamics of 240Pu from a configuration in the proximity of the outer fission barrier to full scission and the formation of the fragments within an implementation of the Density Functional theory extended to superfluid systems and real-time dynamics. While the fission products emerge with properties very similar to those determined experimentally, the fission dynamics appears to be quite complex, with various shape and pairing modes being excited during the evolution. Consequently the time scale of the evolution turned out to be much slower than previously expected.