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

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.

5 pages, 2 figures