Study of heavy nuclei at FLNR (Dubna)

Experiments are described and main results presented on the synthesis and decay properties of superheavy nuclides, produced in fusion reactions induced by a ⁴⁸Ca-beam on heavy actinide targets. In such reactions neutron-rich nuclei are formed. For them, according to theory, an abrupt enhancement of stability due to nuclear shell effects is expected. The decay properties of the new nuclides are compared with calculations of theoretical models, which predict the existence of “islands of stability” in the region of hypothetical superheavy elements.     

Shell evolution at N=20 in the constrained relativistic mean field approach

The shell evolution at N = 20, a disappearing neutron magic number observed experimentally in very neutron-rich nuclides, is investigated in the constrained relativistic mean field (RMF) theory. The trend of the shell closure observed experimentally towards the neutron drip-line can be reproduced. The predicted two-neutron separation energies, neutron shell gap energies and deformation parameters of ground states are shown as well. These results are compared with the recent Hartree-Fock-Bogliubov (HFB-14) model and the available experimental data. The perspective towards a better understanding of the shell evolution is discussed.     

Shell evolution at N=20 in the constrained relativistic mean field approach

The shell evolution at N=20, a disappearing neutron magic number observed experimentally in very neutron-rich nuclides, is investigated in the constrained relativistic mean field (RMF) theory. The trend of the shell closure observed experimentally towards the neutron drip-line can be reproduced. The predicted two-neutron separation energies, neutron shell gap energies and deformation parameters of ground states are shown as well. These results are compared with the recent Hartree-Fock-Bogliubov (HFB-14) model and the available experimental data. The perspective towards a better understanding of the shell evolution is discussed.     

Superheavy element chemistry at GSI – status and perspectives

Superheavy elements have been synthesized and chemically characterized one-atom-at-a-time up to element 108. Presently, the quest for identification and investigation of element 112 is one of the hottest topics in this field. The transactinide elements 104 to 108 are members of group 4 to 8 of the periodic table and element 112 belongs into group 12. For some of these elements detailed chemical properties have been revealed which show stunning deviations from simple extrapolations within their respective group while others exhibit great similarities with their lighter homologues. All presently known chemical properties of seaborgium (Sg, element 106) — the heaviest element whose behavior was investigated in aqueous solution — and hassium (Hs, element 108) were obtained in experiments performed at the GSI in large international collaborations. Recently, the highly efficient and very clean separation of Hs was applied for nuclear studies of various Hs nuclides investigating their cross section and their nuclear decay properties in the region of the N=162 neutron shell. To overcome certain limitations of the presently used on-line chemical separations the new TransActinide Separator and Chemistry Apparatus (TASCA) — with a gas-filled recoil separator as a front-end tool — was designed and built at the GSI in a collaborative effort. Presently in its commissioning phase, TASCA shall be a key instrument for a big leap into quantitatively and qualitatively new experiments in the region of superheavy elements.     

Production and study of heavy neutron rich nuclei formed in multi-nucleon transfer reactions

A new setup is proposed to produce and investigate heavy neutron-rich nuclei located along the neutron closed shell N = 126. This “blank spot” of the nuclear map can be reached neither in fusion–fission reactions nor in fragmentation processes widely used nowadays for the production of exotic nuclei. The present limits of the upper part of the nuclear map are very close to stability while the unexplored area of heavy neutron-rich nuclides along the neutron closed shell N = 126 is extremely important for nuclear astrophysics investigations and, in particular, for the understanding of the r-process of astrophysical nucleosynthesis. A new way was recently proposed for the production of these nuclei via low-energy multi-nucleon transfer reactions. The estimated yields of neutron-rich nuclei are found to be rather high in such reactions and several tens of new nuclides can be produced, for example, in the near-barrier collision of 136Xe with 208Pb. This setup could definitely open a new opportunity in the studies at heavy-ion facilities and will have significant impact on future experiments.     

Gas-cell-based setup for the production and study of neutron rich heavy nuclei

The present limits of the upper part of the nuclear map are very close to stability while the unexplored area of heavy neutron-rich nuclides along the neutron closed shell N = 126 is extremely important for nuclear astrophysics investigations and, in particular, for the understanding of the r-process of astrophysical nucleosynthesis. This area of the nuclear map can be reached neither in fusion–fission reactions nor in fragmentation processes widely used nowadays for the production of exotic nuclei. A new way was recently proposed for the production of these nuclei via low-energy multi-nucleon transfer reactions. The estimated yields of neutron-rich nuclei are found to be significantly high in such reactions and several tens of new nuclides can be produced, for example, in the near-barrier collision of ¹³⁶Xe with ²⁰⁸Pb. A new setup is proposed to produce and study heavy neutron-rich nuclei located along the neutron closed shell N = 126.     

Evolution of the N = 20 and N = 28 shell closures in neutron-rich nuclei

The isospin dependence of shell closure phenomena is studied for light neutron-rich nuclei within a microscopic self-consistent approach using the Gogny force. Introducing configuration mixing, ³²Mg is found to be dynamically deformed, although the N = 20 spherical shell closure persists at the mean-field level for all N = 20 isotones. In contrast, the N = 28 spherical shell closure is found to disappear for N - Z≥ 10 whereas deformed shell closures are preserved and lead to shape coexistence in ⁴⁴ S. Configuration mixing shows that the ground state of this nucleus is triaxially deformed. The first 2⁺ excitation energy E_x = 1.46 MeV and the reduced transition probability B(E2;0⁺ _gs→ 2⁺ ₁)= 420 e ² fm ⁴ obtained with our approach are in good agreement with experimental data. Received: 26 July 2000 / Accepted: 30 August 2000     

元素指定是鉴别重丰中子核的重要手段

简单地介绍了远离β-稳定线重质量丰中子核的合成和研究的科学意义，报告了元素指定对远离β-稳定线重丰中子核研究的重要作用.The significance of the synthesis and study of heavy neutron-rich nuclides far from β-stability is briefly introduced. The important role of element assignment for studying heavy neutron-rich nuclides far from β-stability is reported.     

Heavy element research at FLNR (Dubna)

The setting of the experiments is described and the results obtained on the synthesis of the heaviest nuclides in reactions induced by ⁴⁸Ca projectiles are presented. The decay properties of the new nuclei confirm the theoretical predictions about the new nuclear shells and the “islands of stability” of superheavy elements. Briefly, also the results of the first experiments aimed to study the atomic and chemical properties of element 112 are reported.     

Generalization of α-Decay Cluster-Model to Nuclei Near Spherical and Deformed Shell Closures

The cluster model of a-decay is extended to the regions around doubly magic spherical nucleus ^208Pb and around deformed shell closure ^270Hs, respectively. The effects of spherical shell closures (N=126 and Z=82) on α-decay are investigated by introducing an N-dependent α-preformation factor and a Z-dependent one inspired by a microscopic model. Good agreement between the theoretical a-decay half-lives and the measured ones is obtained for the spherical nuclei near the doubly magic nucleus ^208Pb, where the nuclear shell effect is included in the expression of α-preformation factor. The cluster model is also generalized for the decay of deformed nuclei. The branching ratios of α-decays from the ground state of a parent nucleus to the ground state (0^ ) of its deformed daughter nucleus and to the first excited state (2^ ) are calculated in the framework of the cluster model. The results indicate that a measurement of α spectroscopy is a feasible method to extract the information of nuclear deformation of superheavy nuclei around the deformed nucleus ^270Hs.     

Thermal neutron fission cross sections in the range 302≧A≧223

A least squares method is used to fit a smooth curve to known thermal neutron fission cross section data for nuclei of evenN. By making use of fission barriers resulting from a modified liquid drop formalism coupled with the Strutinsky Normalization Procedure, the result is generalized and applied to the prediction within this framework of some 59 cross sections in the actinide and adjacent sub-actinide and trans-actinide regions, as well as to the prediction of an additional 37 cross sections in the superheavy region. In the first group is included a number of nuclides for which presently available cross section data are necessarily cited as upper limits. In the second group, interest is focussed on the predicted island of stability surrounding a neutron shell closure at 184 and a proton shell closure at 114. The results, while they are regarded as plausible estimates and not precise determinations, indicate that many cross sections in this region can be expected to undergo a pronounced reduction in magnitude relative to the limited number of estimates previously given in the literature.     

Mass Shell and Even-odd Effects in Radiative Capture Reaction

This paper investigates the mass,shell and even-odd effects of the nonstatistical and statistical processes in the radiative nucleon capture reactions.The (n,γ) cross sections for 33 even-neutron target nuclides were studied at En of 0.1 to 3MeV.The results indicate that the nonstatistical capture cross sections do not present any systematically varying pattern with mass number,except for a weak shell effect.The statistical capture cross sections,which depend strongly on the level density,display obvious mass,shell and even-odd effects.The nonstatistical fractions show prominent downward tendency with mass number,as well as the shell effect.     

新核素271110及其α衰变链的理论研究

用自洽的相对论平均场模型研究了核²⁷¹110及其α衰变链核的结构.理论的α衰变能与实验数据符合.理论的核寿命也与实验数据比较接近.预言了未知核素²⁷⁵112的性质,并讨论了质子数Z=108附近的形变壳效应.     

Laser Spectroscopy of Transuranium Elements

The present paper aims to discuss the prospects for nuclear structure investigation of the transuranium elements by laser spectroscopy. The authors lay stress on two peculiarities of the nuclear structure in this region: The deformed shell closure at neutron number N = 152 and the appearance of superdeformed isomeric states. A laser spectroscopic experimental method is proposed to study these features.     

超重元素(新核素)合成研究进展情况分析和展望

本文在介绍和分析国际、国内在超重元素（新核素）合成实验研究与理论研究进展情况的基础上对我国今后如何从理论与实验的结合上开展超重元素（核）合成研究工作提出一些看法和建议，提供讨论。     

On the influence of shell structure in dissipative collisions

A kinematically complete study of the symmetric systems ¹⁴⁴Sm+¹⁴⁴Sm and ¹⁵⁴Sn+¹⁵⁴Sm has been performed at energies 30% in excess of the interaction barrier. They have been chosen because of their different internal structure: ¹⁴⁴Sm has a closed N = 82 neutron shell and a spherical ground-state configuration; ¹⁵⁴Sm with ten neutrons outside this shell is strongly deformed. The observed gross features of both reactions like energy, angular and total mass or element distributions are very similar; the ratio of the mass variances as function of the total kinetic energy loss indicates the number of exchanged nucleons to be comparable in all stages of the reactions. At small energy losses, however, the element distributions of the ¹⁴⁴Sm + ¹⁴⁴Sm reaction are considerably broader, pointing at an enhanced proton transfer at the cost of the number of exchanged neutrons in this system. This observation is attributed to the influence of the closed shell which seems to block the transfer of neutrons at low excitation energies. These results can be explained quantitatively by the different gradients of the shell-corrected potential energy surfaces of the two systems.     

超重元素(新核素)合成研究进展情况分析和展望

本文在介绍和分析国际、国内在超重元素 (新核素 )合成实验研究与理论研究进展情况的基础上对我国今后如何从理论与实验的结合上开展超重元素 (核 )合成研究工作提出一些看法和建议 ,提供讨论     

Shape transition in the neutron rich sodium isotopes

Mass spectrometer measurements of the neutron rich sodium isotopes show a sudden increase at ³¹Na in the values of the two-neutron separation energies. The spherical shell model naturally predicts a sudden decrease at ³²Na after the N = 20 shell closure. We propose that the explanation for this disagreement lies in the fact that sodium isotopes in this mass region are strongly deformed due to the filling of negative parity orbitais from the 1f_{$\text{7}\text{2}$} shell. Hartree-Fock calculations are presented in support of this conjecture.     

Shifting the closed proton shell to Z = 122 —A possible scenario to understand the production of superheavy elements Z = 112−118

The recent experiments at FLNR, Dubna, demonstrated that cross-sections to produce SHEs by ⁴⁸Ca-induced reactions on actinide targets increase beyond Z = 111, reach a maximum of 5 pb at Z = 114 and fall below the 1 pb level at Z = 118. A scenario is proposed to understand the findings within the frame of former experimental results of heavy-element production and theoretical predictions about the stability of the nuclides concerned. New ingredients introduced are: 1) to shift the next proton shell beyond Pb from Z = 114 to Z = 122; 2) the isotopes of the elements Z = 112 to Z = 118 are deformed and their nuclei have oblate shapes; 3) the fission barriers around the next nucleus with doubly closed shells ₃₀₆¹⁸⁴122 are larger than the neutron separation energies and reach values in the range of 10MeV. The ascent of the flat top at ₃₀₆¹⁸⁴122 is described by the proposed scenario, which likewise excludes reaching the doubly closed shell region at the top by today’s experimental methods. Communicated by T.S. Bíró     

Experimental study on the 3p size-resonance in thep- wave neutron strength function

Using a silicon filtered fission neutron beam of an energy width of 20 keV around 143 keV we measured the total cross sections for 37 nuclides and elements having mass numbers between 87 and 140 and determined thep-wave strength functions. The 3P-resonance atA=98 shows no splitting into theP _3/2?P _1/2 doublet. The narrow resonance peak and the following broad distribution of thep-strength function (A=103 to 140) can approximately be reproduced by deformed optical model calculations. The spin-orbit term in the optical potential is consistent with the spin orbit force in the shell model. For nuclei around the closed (N=50) neutron shell a shell effect in thep-wave strength function is indicated.