Fission in the landscape of heaviest elements: Some recent examples

¹ Helmholtz Institute Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
² GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
³ Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
⁴ Lund University, 22100 Lund, Sweden
⁵ University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZE, UK
⁶ Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata 700064, India
⁷ University of Jyväskylä, 40351 Jyväskylä, Finland

^a Corresponding author: e-mail: J.Khuyagbaatar@gsi.de
^b Present address: GANIL, CEA/DSM-CNRS/IN2P3, Bd. Henri Becquerel, BP. 55027, 14076 Caen Cedex 5, France
^c Present address: KVI-Center for Advanced Radiation Technology University of Groningen, 9747 AA Groningen, The Netherlands
^d Present address: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India

Published online: 1 December 2016

Abstract

The fission process still remains a main factor that determines the stability of the atomic nucleus of heaviest elements. Fission half-lives vary over a wide range, 10⁻¹⁹−10²⁴ s. Present experimental techniques for the synthesis of the superheavy elements that usually measure α-decay chains are sensitive only in a limited range of half-lives, often 10⁻⁵−10³ s. In the past years, measurement techniques for very short-lived and very long-lived nuclei were significantly improved at the gas-filled recoil separator TASCA at GSI Darmstadt. Recently, several experimental studies of fission-related phenomena have successfully been performed. In this paper, results on ^254−256Rf and ²⁶⁶Lr are presented and corresponding factors for retarding the fission process are discussed.