FISSION BARRIERS AT FINITE TEMPERATURE: A THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION WITH THE GOGNY FORCE

The evolution with temperature of nuclear properties relevant to fission are analyzed in the case of the Pu-240 nucleus by using the standard finite temperature mean field approximation (including pairing correlations) and the Gogny D1S force. To be more specific, potential energy curves, pairing correlation energies, level density parameter a, collective quadrupole mass, etc are considered. The impact of their evolution with temperature in the quantum decay rate, meaningful only in the low temperature regime, is also considered.