Alpha decay of the new isotope172Au

The first observation of the extremely neutrondeficient nucleus¹⁷²Au is reported, produced using the fusion evaporation reaction⁷⁰Ge+¹⁰⁶Cd→¹⁷⁶Hg^* (E_x?64 MeV). Mass separated evaporation residues were implanted into a double-sided silicon strip detector, and the energy and time of subsequent decay events were recorded. The alpha decay of¹⁷²Au was measured with an energy =6860±10 KeV, corresponding to =7020±10 Kev, and a half-life of 4±1 ms. No evidence was seen for a proton decay branch, implying a limit ofb _p ≤ 2 %.