
75Physical Basis of Nuclear Forensic Science
nucleus is subjected to less Coulomb repulsion, whereas the saturated strong force is
little changed at small deformations. In the heavy elements, this phenomenon results
in the most stable nuclear conguration being nonspherical, with low-energy rota-
tional
structures in their level schemes.
As
a charged liquid drop deforms, it performs work against its surface tension,
which results in an initial increase in nuclear potential energy that is more rapid than
the corresponding decrease in Coulomb energy. If the nucleus continues to deform
along an axis, it will reach a critical deformation at which ...