THE IN-FLIGHT FISSION OF 3.2 GEV URANIUM IONS IN POLYMER CR-39

The transparent solid materials with high resistivity can be used to r egister and visualize the tracks of heavily ionizing charged particles , During the passage of incident ions in the detector material, it is possible that nuclear reactions are also triggered, For uranium projec tiles of energy 3.2 GeV penetrating CR-39 polymer (allyldiglycol carbo nate), we have detected a large number of events in which uranium trac ks are found to split in two prongs, We have measured the geometrical parameters of the bifurcated tracks and converted them into kinematica l quantities such as masses and velocities of the ions associated with these tracks. The values of masses, relative velocities and opening a ngles of the final fragments, have been shown to be consistent with th e hypothesis that the uranium ions undergo in-flight binary fission wh ile interacting with the atoms of CR-39 polymer.