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Strong Evidence for N9 and the Limits of Existence of Atomic Nuclei

R. J. Charity1, J. Wylie2,3, S. M. Wang4,5, T. B. Webb6, K. W. Brown2, G. Cerizza2, Z. Chajecki7, J. M. Elson1, J. Estee2 et al.

D. E. M. Hoff1,*, S. A. Kuvin8,†, W. G. Lynch2,3, J. Manfredi2,‡, N. Michel9, D. G. McNeel8,†, P. Morfouace2, W. Nazarewicz2,3, C. D. Pruitt1, C. Santamaria2, S. Sweany2, J. Smith8, L. G. Sobotka1,6, M. B. Tsang2, and A. H. Wuosmaa8

  • 1Department of Chemistry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
  • 2Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
  • 4Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-beam Application (MOE), Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • 5Shanghai Research Center for Theoretical Nuclear Physics, NSFC and Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China
  • 6Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
  • 7Department of Physics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008, USA
  • 8Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA
  • 9Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China

  • *Present address: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
  • †Present address: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
  • ‡Present address: Department of Engineering Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433, USA.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 172501 – Published 27 October, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.172501

Abstract

The boundaries of the chart of nuclides contain exotic isotopes that possess extreme proton-to-neutron asymmetries. Here we report on strong evidence of N9, one of the most exotic proton-rich isotopes where more than one half of its constitute nucleons are unbound. With seven protons and two neutrons, this extremely proton-rich system would represent the first-known example of a ground-state five-proton emitter. The invariant-mass spectrum of its decay products can be fit with two peaks whose energies are consistent with the theoretical predictions of an open-quantum-system approach; however, we cannot rule out the possibility that only a single resonancelike peak is present in the spectrum.

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Focus

Five Protons Spew Out of Extreme Nucleus

Published 27 October, 2023

A highly unstable nucleus that decays by emitting five protons has been observed, offering an extreme case for testing nuclear models.

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See Also

Invariant-mass spectroscopy in projectile fragmentation reactions

R. J. Charity and L. G. Sobotka
Phys. Rev. C 108, 044318 (2023)

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