Colloquium

The Structure of Super-Heavy Atomic Nuclei

Dr. Roderick Clark
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Wednesday, November 4, 2009   4:00 p.m.  NSH 118

(Refreshments at 3:30 p.m. NSH 202)

 

With what element does the periodic table end? The existence of super-heavy nuclei requires an incredibly delicate interplay between macroscopic liquid-drop energy and the extra binding associated with quantum shell corrections. Without these quantum effects, super-heavy nuclei would immediately decay due to the Coulomb repulsion between the large number of protons.  I will describe a new generation of experiments on the structure and properties of the heaviest nuclei, which are addressing the fundamental issue of the maximum mass and charge that a nucleus can attain. The results are testing predictions, stretching back more than forty years, of a possible "island of super-heavy stability".

 

Host: Mark Caprio