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Japan Claims Heaviest-Ever Element
mOoZik writes "According to People's Daily Online, Japanese scientists claim to have created a new element, whose atomic number is 113, by bombarding a Bismuth atom target with 2.5 trillion zinc atoms per second for 80 days. The claim, as that of Russian and American scientists that claimed to have created elements 113 and 115 in February, remains to be officially confirmed."
The element's atomic mass number is 278, meaning its nucleus has 113 protons and 165 neutrons, he added.
For the lazy ppl who wouldn't have time to go through the article.
Quite surprising to see a mentioning of the atomic mass number only as the last sentence of the article, as this, and not the atomic number, actually decides whether this new element is the heaviest or not.
Interesting. For the non-physicists here, the wikipedia article on the Island of stability is more accessible.
From that article:
The term "particularly stable" is in comparison to the half-lives of slightly lighter or heavier elements; the half-lives of elements in the island of stability are still expected to be measured in fractions of a second, or perhaps measured in days, though some theoretical possibilities include much longer periods.
For the reasons previously given, the limiting value, the equivalent of zero in each scalar dimension, is eight units of one-dimensional, or four units of two-dimensional, rotational displacement. In the notation used herein, the latter is a 4-4 magnetic combination. However, as indicated in Chapter 24, the destructive limit is not reached until the displacement in the electric dimension also arrives at the equivalent of the last magnetic unit. A rotational combination (atom) is therefore stable, at zero magnetic ionization, up to 4-4-31, or the equivalent 5-4-(1), which is element 117. One more step reaches the limit at which the rotational motion terminates.
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Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien