Insight into fission from the gamma probe: Going beyond current status with PARIS@VAMOS

Nuclear fission is an ideal laboratory for studying nuclear properties, in general, and dynamical aspects of nuclear reactions, in particular. The generation of excitation energy and angular momentum along the dynamical evolution of the fissioning system, and their subsequent sharing at scission, are vividly debated subjects. They determine the entry point of the fragments in the (E*, L) diagram. The latter rules the decay cascade of the primary fission product. The coupling of the new-generation PARIS array with the VAMOS++ heavy-ion spectrometer at GANIL will give access to a high-fold coincidence data set, which we propose to exploit to reconstruct the fragment entry point, investigate the correlations between the outcoming gamma-rays, neutrons and isotopically identified fragments, and thereby get a hand into the generation and sharing of excitation energy and angular momentum in fission. Additionally, the origin of specific nuclear structure phenomena, such as the gamma bump, will be looked for. The installation of PARIS at VAMOS++ is a unique opportunity to collect innovative, high-quality, unprecedentedly exclusive, experimental information and get fresh insight into the fission process.