Microscopic Theory of Fission Dynamics Based on the Generator Coordinate Method

Walid Younes received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Rutgers University in 1996, and is currently a member of the nuclear theory and modeling group at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 2006 he launched a program with Daniel Gogny to develop a microscopic theory of fission.  Together, they developed a quantum-mechanical description of scission.Daniel Marc Gogny, born June 20, 1938, passed away on May 25, 2015.  In the 1970’s he developed a finite-range effective interaction that has since become a standard used throughout the field of nuclear physics.  He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) of France for 40 years. In 1998 he was appointed by the CEA to be scientific liaison to the French at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and moved to California. Gogny retired from the CEA in 2004 but continued to mentor doctoral students and work with his collaborators such as Walid Younes at LLNL for the next 11 years.Jean-François Berger, now retired from the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, received his Docteur d’Etat in physical sciences from the Université Paris Sud in 1985. He worked with D. Gogny at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) of France at Bruyeres le Châtel from 1973 to 1988, in particular on the topic of nuclear fission. In the early 1980’s Drs. Berger and Gogny produced some of the first fully microscopic time-dependent calculations of the fission process.

• Preface.- Part I: Tools for a Microscopic Theory of the Nucleus.- Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Theory.- Matrix Elements of the Finite-Range Interaction.- The Generator Coordinate Method.- Part II: Application to Low-Energy Fission.- General Concepts.- Numerical Application to 240Pu Fission.- Summary and Outlook for Future Directions in Fission Theory.- Appendix A.- Appendix B.- Appendix C.- Appendix D.- Appendix E.- Appendix F.- Appendix G.