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Nuclear fission as resonance-mediated conductance

For 75 years the theory of nuclear fission has been based on the existence of a collective coordinate associated with the nuclear shape, an assumption required by the Bohr-Wheeler formula as well as by the R-matrix theory of fission. We show that it is also possible to formulate the theory without the help of collective coordinates. In the new formulation, fission is facilitated by individual states in the barrier region rather than channels over the barrier. In a certain limit the theory reduces to a formula closely related to the formula for electronic conductance through resonant tunneling states. In contrast, conduction through channels gives rise to a staircase excitation function that is well-known in nanoscale electronics but has never been seen in nuclear fission.