Towards the Discovery of New Elements: Production of Livermorium (Z=116) with 50Ti

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of livermorium production via a $^{50}$Ti induced reaction, providing crucial data for superheavy element synthesis near the Island of Stability.

Contribution

It demonstrates the production and detection of livermorium using a $^{50}$Ti beam, advancing methods for discovering elements beyond Z=118.

Findings

Measured production cross section of livermorium as 0.44 pb

Observed two decay chains assigned to $^{290}$Lv

First published data on superheavy element production with $^{50}$Ti

Abstract

The $^{244}$Pu($^{50}$Ti,$xn$)$^{294-x}$Lv reaction was investigated at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 88-Inch Cyclotron facility. The experiment was aimed at the production of a superheavy element with $Z\ge 114$ by irradiating an actinide target with a beam heavier than $^{48}$Ca. Produced Lv ions were separated from the unwanted beam and nuclear reaction products using the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator and implanted into a newly commissioned focal plane detector system. Two decay chains were observed and assigned to the decay of $^{290}$Lv. The production cross section was measured to be $\sigma_{\rm prod}=0.44(^{+58}_{-28})$~pb at a center-of-target center-of-mass energy of 220(3)~MeV. This represents the first published measurement of the production of a superheavy element near the `Island-of-Stability', with a beam of $^{50}$Ti and is an essential precursor in the pursuit of searching for new elements beyond $Z=118$.