Extended optical model for fission

A comprehensive formalism to calculate fission cross sections based on the extension of the optical model for fission is presented. It can be used for description of nuclear reactions on actinides featuring multi-humped fission barriers with partial absorption in the wells and direct transmission through discrete and continuum fission channels. The formalism describes the gross fluctuations observed in the fission probability due to vibrational resonances, and can be easily implemented in existing statistical reaction model codes. The extended optical model for fission is applied for neutron induced fission cross-section calculations on $^{234,235,238}\mathrm{U}$ and $^{239}\mathrm{Pu}$ targets. A triple-humped fission barrier is used for $^{234,235}\mathrm{U}(n,f)$, while a double-humped fission barrier is used for $^{238}\mathrm{U}(n,f)$ and $^{239}\mathrm{Pu}(n,f)$ reactions as predicted by theoretical barrier calculations. The impact of partial damping of class-II/III states, and of direct transmission through discrete and continuum fission channels, is shown to be critical for a proper description of the measured fission cross sections for $^{234,235,238}\mathrm{U}(n,f)$ reactions. The $^{239}\mathrm{Pu}(n,f)$ reaction can be calculated in the complete damping approximation. Calculated cross sections for $^{235,238}\mathrm{U}(n,f)$ and $^{239}\mathrm{Pu}(n,f)$ reactions agree within 3% with the corresponding cross sections derived within the Neutron Standards least-squares fit of available experimental data. The extended optical model for fission can be used for both theoretical fission studies and nuclear data evaluation.