fission barrier
fission barrier
[′fish·ən ‚bar·ē·ər] (nuclear physics)
One or more maxima in the plot of potential energy against nuclear deformation of a heavy nucleus, which inhibits spontaneous fission of the nucleus.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive
In modeling fission, physicists think of a nucleus as residing in a valley of low potential energy; to fission, the nucleus must "tunnel" through a neighboring hill known as the
fission barrier. The excited actinide nuclei, it was determined, don't sit at the bottom of the valley, but rather in a little crevice farther up the fission hill.
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