Summertime...

... in our research institute is usually the time for maintenance so a researcher must have a quite long break in his experimental work. This is the time for a little rest, but also for have an overview on the latest publications in the field, and for having a "look" at the data of previous experiments...

Very recently we performed an experiment at the Tandem Accelerator of the Technical University (Munich). In this experiment we measured the fission probability of 238Np as a function of the excitation energy by employing the 237Np(d,pf) reaction. However, the data analysis of this experiment is complicated by the very large level density which originates from the odd-odd nature of this nucleus: it has an odd number of neutrons and protons. Now, I have the time for the careful analysis of the data of this experiment...

Fission probability of 238Np as a function of excitation energy (blue spectrum), and a zoomed spectrum on the individual resonances.