An experiment carried out at CERN's ISOLDE facility has determined the western shore of a small island of atomic nuclei, where conventional nuclear rules break down. The atomic nucleus was discovered ...

Calculations show how the mysterious “magic numbers” that stabilize nuclear structures emerge naturally from nuclear forces—once these are described with appropriate spatial resolution. Figure 1: ...

Maria Goeppert Mayer was a physicist at Argonne who developed the nuclear shell model theory, a pivotal discovery that won her a Nobel Prize in 1963. This year marks the 75 th anniversary of the ...

An international team of researchers has systematically measured the β-decay half-lives of 40 nuclei near calcium-54, providing key experimental data for understanding the structure of extremely ...

A five-dimensional model accurately predicts the asymmetric fission of mercury isotopes, advancing our understanding of nuclear fission beyond traditional heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium ...

Researchers have found that titanium-48 changes from a shell model structure to an alpha-cluster structure depending on the distance from the center of the nucleus. The results upend the conventional ...