First evidence for a spherical magnesium-32 nucleus
Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 12:40
in Physics & Chemistry
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 (TUM), 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...
