Symmetric and near-symmetric fission of 24Mg, 28Si and 32S

Abstract In several recent measurements the symmetric fission of 24 Mg has been reported. In this paper the results of a search for similar processes in 28 Si and 32 S are presented. In contrast to the results for 24 Mg, no evidence is seen for the fission of 28 Si to 16 O+ 12 C or 32 S to 16 O+ 16 O following inelastic excitation. However, these processes are observed to occur following pickup onto 24 Mg. The results are consistent with a simple model of the fission process developed by Harvey and suggest the existence of large scale cluster structure in all three nuclei.