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Title: Stability and production of superheavy nuclei

Conference ·
OSTI ID:563296
 [1];  [2]
  1. P. Moller Scientific Computing and Graphics, Inc., Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States). Theoretical Div.

Beyond uranium heavy elements rapidly become increasingly unstable with respect to spontaneous fission as the proton number Z increases, because of the disruptive effect of the long-range Coulomb force. However, in the region just beyond Z = 100 magic proton and neutron numbers and the associated shell structure enhances nuclear stability sufficient to allow observation of additional nuclei. Some thirty years ago it was speculated that an island of spherical, relatively stable superheavy nuclei would exist near the next doubly magic proton-neutron combination beyond {sup 208}Pb, that is, at proton number Z = 114 and neutron number N = 184. Theory and experiment now show that there also exists a rock of stability in the vicinity of Z = 110 and N = 162 between the actinide region, which previously was the end of the peninsula of known elements, and the predicted island of spherical superheavy nuclei slightly southwest of the magic numbers Z = 114 and N = 184. The authors review here the stability properties of the heavy region of nuclei. Just as the decay properties of nuclei in the heavy region depend strongly on shell structure, this structure also dramatically affects the fusion entrance channel. The six most recently discovered new elements were all formed in cold-fusion reactions. They discuss here the effect of the doubly magic structure of the target in cold-fusion reactions on the fusion barrier and on dissipation.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
563296
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-97-3580; CONF-9709162-; ON: DE98001463; TRN: 98:002766
Resource Relation:
Conference: 3. TOURS symposium on nuclear physics, Tours (France), 2-5 Sep 1997; Other Information: PBD: [1997]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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