| Investigation of ternary fission in the reaction 12C + 232Th at projectile energies of Elab = 193 and 264 MeV has revealed two components, only one of which can be understood within a standard statistical emission framework. Comparison of the relative emission probabilities for intermediate mass fragments (IMFs), fragments with atomic number 3 ≤ Z ≤ 20, as a function of the initial excitation of the composite system has provided evidence that two different mechanisms exist for IMF emission. IMFs emitted early, prior to significant deformation of the system, exhibit behavior consistent with statistical emission. IMFs emitted later, near-scission, manifest significantly different behavior. The characteristics of early stage and near-scission emission are explored. Comparisons are also made to recent work in spontaneous and thermal neutron induced ternary fission. |
