Recent progresses in studies of fission of pre-actinide nuclei

Understanding fission of a nucleus, particularly in the pre-actinide region, continues to be a challenging problem. Fission process involves drastic rearrangements in nuclei, where both statistical and dynamical features, governed by the delicate interplay between the macroscopic (liquid drop) aspects and the quantal (shell) effects, are exhibited. Study of fission has relevance in studies related to superheavy elements, stellar nucleosynthesis, and nuclear energy applications