Speaker
Description
Super Heavy Elements - experimental developments
Gottfried Münzenberg
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung mbH, Planckstr. 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal 576104, Karnataka, India
G.Muenzenberg@gsi.de
With his theoretical work our mentor Walter Greiner pioneered heavy-and super heavy element research and motivated us as young scientists. As member of the “Kernphysikalische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Hessen, KAH” he actively shaped the profile of GSI. Cold heavy-ion fusion proposed by Yuri Oganessian, theoretically supported by Walter Greiner, paved the way to the super heavy elements. We are happy that still during his lifetime we could prove some of his predictions
Experimental developments paving the way to super heavy elements were the cold fusion of heavy ions to create super heavy nuclei, separation in-flight, and the implantation of the separated nuclei into position sensitive surface-barrier detectors to observe the decay history of individual nuclei. With the discovery of oganesson, Z=118, the heaviest element known today, produced in hot fusion reaction using beams of 48Ca, we have come to the end of this series. New experimental ideas and development are needed and under way.
A primary challenge for SHE research is the search for reactions to pass beyond oganesson and to explore the predicted island of superheavy elements. To measure cross-sections of femtobarns near and beyond Z=118, dedicated SHE factories are under construction. Reaction studies include new target-projectile combinations and transfer reactions. The next-generation of radioactive beam facilities will allow for large-scale studies. To which extent the use of rare-isotope beams can contribute to SHE research is under discussion.
The new SHE facilities include in-flight separators coupled to ion-catchers and multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometers with isobaric mass resolution. These allow the isotopic identification of single atomic nuclei, determining nuclear mass and charge. For the first time superheavy nuclei can be identified directly “still alive” independent from their decay mode. First promising results have already been obtained.
| Topic: | Special session for Super Heavy Elements |
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