EPJ A Topical Issue: Heavy and Super-Heavy Nuclei and Elements: Production and Properties
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- Published on 24 September 2020
An important achievement of the refined shell model for the nucleus was the prediction of new shell closures at proton number 114 and neutron number 184. In addition, the model predicted decay properties, which led to the expectation that an “island of stability” would be located near these proton and neutron numbers. Experiments confirmed the predicted properties of part of these super-heavy nuclei during the last 20 years. Already in the 1980s, experimentally confirmed was a region of deformed super-heavy nuclei near proton and neutron numbers 108 and 162, respectively. Whereas only a few isotopes could be produced in the discovery experiments, the increase of the experimental sensitivity makes now and in future a more detailed study of these super-heavy systems possible. For this reason, the editors of the European Physical Journal A, N. Alamanos and M.J.G. Borge, suggested that a special edition be devoted to research on super-heavy nuclei and elements.
