Physicists make not just magical particles, but doubly-magical particles
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From: YKhan on 28 May 2010 10:03 Short-lived tin is doubly magic - physicsworld.com "Researchers in the US and UK have confirmed that a short-lived isotope of tin is the latest member in an exclusive club of "doubly magic" nuclei, a nuclear equivalent to the noble gases. This is only the seventh of these rigidly spherical nuclei to have its magical qualities measured. And the experiment could provide clues to how heavy elements are created in the supernova explosions of massive stars. Physicists have long known that protons and neutrons in nuclei occupy discrete orbital shells in much the same way as electrons do in atoms. Indeed, when this idea was developed into the "nuclear shell model" it won Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J Hans D Jensen a share of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physics. Magic nuclei are those having the precise number of protons or neutrons required to fill each orbital shell to full capacity. Nuclei with magic neutron or proton numbers tend to be characterized by a stronger binding, greater stability, and are, therefore, more abundant in nature. In doubly magic nuclei, both proton and neutron shells are filled, which can make the binding even stronger. " http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/42781 |