ICP-SFMS search for long-lived naturally-occurring heavy, superheavy and superactinide nuclei compared to AMS experiments

Abstract

Negative results obtained in AMS searches by Dellinger et al. on mostly unrefined ores have led them to conclude that the very heavy long-lived species found in chemically processed samples with ICP-SFMS by Marinov et al. are artifacts. We argue that it may not be surprising that results obtained from small random samplings of inhomogeneous natural minerals would contrast with concentrations found in homogeneous materials extracted from large quantities of ore. We also point out that it is possible that the groups of counts at masses 296 and 294 seen by Dellinger et al. could be, within experimental uncertainties, due to ${}^{296}$Rg and ${}^{294}$eka-Bi in long-lived isomeric states. In such case, the experiments of Dellinger et al. lend support to the experiments of Marinov et al.

2 pages. Accepted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys. E

References in corpus (5)

• Evidence for a long-lived superheavy nucleus with atomic mass number A=292 and atomic number Z=~122 in natural Th
• Existence of long-lived isomeric states in naturally-occurring neutron-deficient Th isotopes
• Existence of long-lived isotopes of a superheavy element in natural Au
• Enrichment of the Superheavy Element Rg in Natural Au
• Coherent Description for Hitherto Unexplained Radioactivities by Super- and Hyperdeformed Isomeric States

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Search for long-lived superheavy eka-tungsten with radiopure ZnWO${}_4$ crystal scintillator