The recent unexpected discovery of asymmetric fission of ${}^{180}$Hg following the electron-capture decay of ${}^{180}$Tl has led to intense interest in experimentally mapping the fission-yield properties over more extended regions of the nuclear chart and compound-system energies. We present here a first calculation of fission-fragment yields for neutron-deficient Hg isotopes, using the recently developed Brownian Metropolis shape-motion treatment. The results for ${}^{180}$Hg are in approximate agreement with the experimental data. For ${}^{174}$Hg the symmetric yield increases strongly with decreasing energy, an unusual feature, which would be interesting to verify experimentally.

• Received 9 November 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.85.024306