Recent progress in experiments on the heaviest nuclides at SHIP

Abstract

Understanding the atomic and nuclear properties of very heavy and superheavy nuclides is one of the main objectives in experiments at the recoil separator SHIP at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany. This article summarizes recent experiments performed on isotopes of the elements with Z = 102–105. The radionuclides of interest were produced in heavy-ion fusion-evaporation reactions with lead and bismuth targets and separated from the primary beam by the velocity filter SHIP. The studies by $$\alpha $$ α –$$\gamma $$ γ spectroscopy experiments, direct mass measurements and laser spectroscopy employed the SHIP decay-spectroscopy setup, the new COMPASS detector, the mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP, and the laser spectroscopy setup RADRIS. This article briefly introduces the experimental approaches and discusses selected results providing a more comprehensive picture of the nuclear structure around the deformed neutron shell closure at $$N=152$$ N = 152 . Future perspectives to extend such experiments towards other regions in the heaviest nuclei will also be addressed.

Prediction for the synthesis cross sections of new moscovium isotopes in fusion-evaporation reactions

“…we also found that odd-even effect might paly a role in the evaporation residue cross section. We have predicted the new moscovium isotopes 278−286 Mc with the maximum cross sections 0.5 pb, 9 pb, 12 pb, 10.5 pb, 150 pb, 11 pb, 100 pb, 10 pb, 31 pb in the collisions of 35,37 Cl + 248 Cf, 38,40 Ar + 238 Bk, 39,41 K + 247 Cm, 40,42,44,46 Ca + 238 Am, 45 Sc + 242 Pu, and 46,48,50 Ti + 243 Np, 51 V + 238 U at excitation energy interval of 0-100 MeV.…”

“…With the development of suitable separation and detection techniques, the multinucleon transfer (MNT) mechanism might be as the most promising method used to synthesize unknown superheavy elements, which has been applied to produce massive heavy and superheavy isotopes [35]. The laboratories all over the world such as Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) [36], Gesellschatt Für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) [37,38] and DUBNA [39,40], RIKEN [41][42][43], the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) [44], Australian National University (ANU) [45] devoted constantly to synthesize new superheavy elements and their isotopes. From the chart of nuclei, in the superheavy region, there are substantial isotopes of superheavy elements which are still unknown yet.…”

Proposal of a New Double-Nozzle Technique for In-Gas-Jet Laser Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy

“…The other way to investigate the nuclear and atomic properties of radioactive elements extracted from the gas cell is by using laser spectroscopy techniques. One can read about, e.g., recent reviews [28,29] and presentation reviews of Piet Van Duppen [30].…”

“…One can find the schematics and descriptions of various setups for the in-gas-jet laser resonance ionization spectroscopy, e.g., in Refs. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38].…”

“…Figure29. Results of the Monte-Carlo trajectory simulations of the fraction of the extracted from the gas cell253 No atomic beam inside the gas jet of 10 mm in diameter (it is the Laser-1 diameter) for the gas cell pressure P cell = 100 mbar, P noz = 81 mbar and P bg = 2 × 10 −2 mbar as a function of distance from the 2nd nozzle exit.…”