Effects of neutron emission on fragment mass and kinetic energy distribution from thermal neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U

The mass and kinetic energy distribution of nuclear fragments from thermal neutron-induced fission of 235U(nth,f) have been studied using a Monte-Carlo simulation. Besides reproducing the pronounced broadening in the standard deviation of the kinetic energy at the final fragment mass number around m=109, our simulation also produces a second broadening around m=125. These results are in good agreement with the experimental data obtained by Belhafaf et al. and other results on yield of mass. We conclude that the obtained results are a consequence of the characteristics of the neutron emission, the sharp variation in the primary fragment kinetic energy and mass yield curves. We show that because neutron emission is hazardous to make any conclusion on primary quantities distribution of fragments from experimental results on final quantities distributions. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.