Effect of potential-energy-model inaccuracies on predictions of fission-fragment mass distributions based on the Brownian shape-motion method

Abstract

Moller and Randrup presented a comprehensive calculation, based on the Brownian shape motion (BSM) method, of fission-fragment charge distributions [Phys. Rev. C 91 (2015) 044316 ] which obtained that ``a new region of asymmetry'' appeared for approximately $95 \le N \le 115$ and $ 75 \le Z \le 94 $. Available experimental results at the time, except for the observation of symmetric fission of $^{187}$Ir by Itkis et al. [Yad. Fiz. 52 (1990) 944], agreed with these predictions apart for minor differences in the transition regions between predicted symmetric and asymmetric fission. It was argued [Phys. Rev. C 91 (2015) 044316 ] that the inaccurate results for $^{187}$Ir were related to inaccuracies in the calculated potential-energy surface and that such inaccuracies are related to the (in)accuracies of the calculated ground-state masses for the corresponding mass splits. We present here more detailed discussions and investigate if differences between the fission-fragment mass yields presented in [Phys. Rev. C 91 (2015) 044316 ] and experiment can occur in other regions of fissioning nuclei.