First evidence for a spherical magnesium-32 nucleus

Elements heavier than iron come into being only in powerful stellar explosions, supernovae. During nuclear reactions all kinds of short-lived atomic nuclei are formed, including more stable combinations – the so-called magic numbers – predicted by theory. Yet here, too, there are exceptions: the islands of inversion. Headed by physicists from the Excellence Cluster Universe at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany), an international team of scientists has now taken a closer look at the island that was first discovered. They have now published their results in Physical Review Letters.

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