Reinvestigating the role of nuclear dissipation in fission of ^220,222,224Th nuclei

One of the major challenges of modern day nuclear physics is to understand the fission dynamics of excited compound nuclei formed in heavy-ion induced fusion reactions. Further, exploring the role of excitation energy, microscopic shell structure, nuclear dissipation and shape (deformation) on fission dynamics is of utmost interest. There are various probes available for such investigations, measurement of pre-scission particle emission (protons, neutrons, alphas and GDR-rays) being the most reliable. Neutron emission is one of the most dominant decay channels in fission reactions. The pre-scission yield of neutrons has proven to be an efficient probe to explore the fusion-fission dynamics of a Compound Nucleus (CN). The enhancement in the pre-scission neutron multiplicity immediately points to a slowing down of the fission process compared to the statistical model fission rate as given by Bohr and Wheele. Fission of hot nuclear systems is strongly hindered flowing to the effect of nuclear dissipation on the fission process