Isotope shift, non-linearity of King plots and the search for new particles

2017

We derive a mean-field relativistic formula for the isotope shift of an electronic energy level for arbitrary angular momentum; we then use it to predict the spectra of superheavy metastable neutron-rich isotopes belonging to the hypothetical island of stability. Our results may be applied to the search for superheavy atoms in astrophysical spectra using the known values of the transition frequencies for the neutron deficient isotopes produced in the laboratory. An example of a relevant astrophysical system may be the spectra of the Przybylski's star where superheavy elements up to Z=99 have been possibly identified. In addition, it has been recently suggested to use the measurements of Kin…