Tailoring fission dynamics using fragmentation of radioactive heavy ion beams.

An innovative approach for studying transient effects in nuclear fission is proposed. Fragmentation of radioactive actinides is employed to prepare fissile nuclei in well-defined initial conditions, and the fission-fragment nuclear charge distribution is used to establish a clock for the dynamical evolution of the system. Based on a so-far un-reached large number of fissioning systems, the study demonstrates the undeniable manifestation of transient effects at high excitation energy and addresses the question about the influence of initial deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]