Nobelium‐254 Forms High‐Spin Rotational States

FEB 01, 1999

An experiment at the limit of feasibility finds that instead of decaying by fission or emission of alphas, an excited nucleus of element 102 stays together and rotates in an elongated shape.

DOI: 10.1063/1.882520

Gloria B. Lubkin

Why should elements beyond, say, atomic number $Z = 100$ exist at all? One might think that the Coulomb repulsion of so many protons ought to make such nuclei fission. But elements with a Z as high as 112 have been created, and they prefer to decay by alpha emission instead of fission. So it’s widely believed that the relative stability of these high‐Z nuclei is a striking example of nuclear shell structure, which lowers the energy of the ground state, thereby creating a fission barrier. Without the shell‐correction energy, the heaviest nuclei wouldn’t be stable.

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