Abstract. Problems of production and study of new neutron-enriched heavy nuclei are discussed. Lowenergy multinucleon transfer reactions are shown to be quite appropriate for this purpose. Reactions with actinide beams and targets are of special interest for synthesis of new neutron-enriched transfermium nuclei and not-yet-known nuclei with closed neutron shell N = 126 having the largest impact on the astrophysical r-process. The estimated cross sections for the production of these nuclei look very promising for planning such experiments at currently available accelerators. These experiments, however, are rather expensive and difficult to perform because of low intensities of the massive projectile beams and problems of separating and detecting the heavy reaction products. Thus, realistic predictions of the corresponding cross sections for different projectile-target combinations are definitely required. Some uncertainty still remains in the values of several parameters used for describing the low-energy nuclear dynamics. This uncertainty does not allow one to perform very accurate predictions for the productions of new heavier-than-target (trans-target) nuclei in multinucleon transfer reactions. Nevertheless these predictions are rather promising (large cross sections) to start such experiments at available accelerators if the problem of separation of heavy transfer reaction products would be solved.
MotivationThe upper part of the present-day nuclear map consists mainly of proton rich nuclei, while the unexplored area of heavy neutron enriched nuclides (also those located along the neutron closed shell N = 126 to the right-hand side of the stability line) is extremely important for nuclear astrophysics investigations and, in particular, for the understanding of the r process of astrophysical nucleogenesis. For elements with Z > 100 only neutron deficient isotopes (located to the left of the stability line) have been synthesized so far. Due to the bending of the stability line toward the neutron axis, in fusion reactions only proton-rich isotopes of heavy elements can be produced. That is the main reason for the impossibility of reaching the center of the island of stability (Z ∼ 110 ÷ 120 and N ∼ 184) in the superheavy (SH) mass region by fusion reactions with stable projectiles. Because of that we also have almost no information about neutron-rich isotopes of heavy elements located in the "northeast" part of the nuclear map: for example, there are 19 known neutron-rich isotopes of cesium (Z = 55) and only 4 of platinum (Z = 78) (see Fig. 1). Thus, the whole "northeast" area of the nuclear map is still terra incognita. Production and studying properties of nuclei located in this region will open a new field of research in nuclear physics. a e-mail: zagrebaev@jinr.ru b e-mail: greiner@fias.uni-frankfurt.de There are only three methods for the production of heavy elements, namely, fusion reactions, a sequence of neutron capture and β − decay processes and multi-nucleon transfer reactions.
Fusion ReactionsFusion...