Pion-induced fission – A review

Real or virtual pions are important ingredients of nuclear reactions at intermediate energies, and their couplings to major nuclear de-excitation modes can determine the final reaction products starting from several beam species. One of these modes is the important fission decay channel for heavy nuclei, induced with real pion beams over a wide range of energies and nuclei, largely using SSNTD. The data have been compared with the predictions of several standard INC reaction models. This review of the data and calculations will provide a status report for this class of reactions. Comparison to fission induced by protons and photons is included to set a context for that induced by real pion beams.