Variable masses in fission and heavy-ion collisions

With the use of the cranking formula, the coordinate-dependent mass parameters of the kinetic-energy operator in fission processes and heavy-ion collisions are calculated in the two-center oscillator model. It is shown that the reduced mass and also the classical moment of inertia are obtained for large separations of the fragments. For small separations, however, the mass parameter for the motion of the centers of mass of the fragments is larger than the reduced mass by an order of magnitude.