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The limits of nuclear mass and charge

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Abstract

Four new elements with atomic numbers Z = 113, 115, 117 and 118 have recently been added to the periodic table. The questions pertaining to these superheavy systems are at the forefront of research in nuclear and atomic physics, and chemistry. This Perspective offers a high-level view of the field and outlines future challenges.

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Fig. 1: Landscape of nucleon-bound nuclei as a function of Z and N.
Fig. 2: Neutron (left) and proton (right) densities of 294Og (top), 302Og (top) and 326Og (bottom) calculated with SV-min in the (x, z) plane at y = 0.
Fig. 3: Qα values for the α-decay chain of 294Og predicted by several global theoretical models compared to experimental and estimated values.
Fig. 4: Electron localization function for group-18 elements xenon, radon and oganesson predicted in relativistic calculations.
Fig. 5: Dominating decay channels predicted in density functional theories calculations.

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Acknowledgements

Discussions with Y. Oganessian and P. Schwerdtfeger, and useful comments from D. Lee are gratefully appreciated. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy under award numbers DOE-DE-NA0002847 (NNSA, the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances programme), DE-SC0013365 (Office of Science) and DE-SC0018083 (Office of Science, NUCLEI SciDAC-4 collaboration).

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy and FRIB Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Witold Nazarewicz

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Nazarewicz, W. The limits of nuclear mass and charge. Nature Phys 14, 537–541 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0163-3

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