Fission transient times from fission probabilities of neighboring isotopes

We present a new and straightforward method to estimate the fission transie nt time by utilizing the cumulative fission probabilities of neighboring is otopes. The fission probabilities were determined as the ratio of the measu red fission cross sections to the Bass Model fusion cross sections. For fiv e neighboring Os185-189 compound nuclei produced in (3)H0e/He-4-induced rea ctions on separated isotope W targets, the transient time TD is estimated t o be < 25 x 10(-21) seconds for excitation energies less than 150 MeV, and the most likely value Of tau (D) is approximate to 10 X 10(-21) seconds. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.