Fission barriers in a macroscopic-microscopic model

In the framework of the macroscopic-microscopic model, this study investigates fission barriers in the region of actinide nuclei. A very effective four-dimensional shape parametrization for fissioning nuclei is proposed. Taking, in particular, the left-right mass asymmetric and nonaxial shapes into account is demonstrated to have a substantial effect on fission barrier heights. The influence of proton versus neutron deformation differences on the potential energy landscape of fissioning nuclei is also discussed