Production of new neutron-rich isotopes of heavy elements in fragmentation reactions of $^{238}$U projectiles at 1 A GeV

TL;DR

This study reports the production and identification of 45 new heavy neutron-rich isotopes resulting from fragmentation of uranium-238 at relativistic energies, providing valuable data for nuclear reaction modeling.

Contribution

First identification of 45 new heavy neutron-rich isotopes from uranium-238 fragmentation at high energies, with cross section measurements to benchmark reaction models.

Findings

Identified 45 new heavy neutron-rich nuclei.

Measured production cross sections for these isotopes.

Provided data to benchmark nuclear reaction codes.

Abstract

The production of heavy neutron-rich nuclei has been investigated using cold fragmentation reactions of $^{238}$U projectiles at relativistic energies. The experiment performed at the high-resolving-power magnetic spectrometer FRS at GSI allowed to identify 45 new heavy neutron-rich nuclei: $^{205}$Pt, $^{207-210}$Au, $^{211-216}$Hg, $^{213-217}$Tl, $^{215-220}$Pb, $^{219-224}$Bi, $^{221-227}$Po, $^{224-229}$At, $^{229-231}$Rn and $^{233}$Fr. The production cross sections of these nuclei were also determined and used to benchmark reaction codes that predict the production of nuclei far from stability.