Efficient method for estimation of fission fragment yields of r-process nuclei

The knowledge of fission fragment yields of hundreds of nuclei inhabiting very neutron-rich regions of the nuclear landscape is crucial for the modeling of heavy-element nucleosynthesis. In this study, we propose a novel model for a fast calculation of fission fragment yields based on the concept of shell-stabilized prefragments calculated within realistic nuclear density functional theory. The new approach has been benchmarked against experimental data and advanced calculations reaffirming the dominant role of shell effects in the pre-scission region for forming fission yields.