Nilsson states nuclei

Strutinsky developed an extension of the liquid drop model which satisfactorily explains the fission isomers and asymmetric fission. For such short half-lives the barrier must be only 2-3 MeV. Noting the manner in which the shell model levels vary with deformation ( 11.5, the "Nilsson levels"), Strutinsky added shell corrections to the basic liquid-drop model and obtained the "double-well" potential energy curve in Figure 14.14b. In the first well the nucleus is a spheroid with the major axis about 25 % larger than the minor. In the second well, the deformation is much larger, the axis ratio being about 1.8. A nucleus in the second well is metastable (i.e. in isomeric state) as it is unstable to y-decay to the first well or to fission. Fission from the second well is hindered by a 2 - 3 MeV barrier, while from the first well the barrier is 5 - 6 MeV, accounting for the difference in half-lives. 

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