Dynamical selection of fragment shell effects in spontaneous fission of ²⁴⁰Pu, ²³²Th, and ²⁶⁴Fm

Understanding how fragment shell effects influence spontaneous fission mass yields remains a central challenge in nuclear fission theory. This work investigates the role of shell effects in the spontaneous fission of $^{240}$Pu, $^{232}$Th, and $^{264}$Fm by combining microscopic collective dynamics with fragment-level shell analysis. A two-step framework is employed: first, the tunneling from the inner to outer turning points is described using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approximation along the least-action path on a potential energy surface calculated from constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory. Second, the dissipative descent from the outer turning points to scission is simulated via Langevin dynamics in a large collective space of quadrupole and octupole deformations. Fragment shell effects are quantified using smoothed level density indicators for representative even-even fragment pairs extracted from Langevin scission configurations. The analysis reveals that enhanced yields arise from a coherent overlap among dynamically populated scission configurations, low-energy regions on the fragment potential energy surfaces, and low neutron and/or proton level densities near the Fermi surface. Proton shell effects provide persistent microscopic selectivity in both light and heavy fragments across asymmetric channels, while neutron shell effects offer additional stabilization. Deformed shell effects at finite quadrupole and octupole deformations play a crucial role in stabilizing asymmetric fission channels. This work demonstrates that fission fragment yields reflect shell-favored configurations that are made accessible by the potential energy surface topology and populated by stochastic dynamics, with the largest yields corresponding to configurations where shell gaps provide maximal binding.