0000000000583475
AUTHOR
Sunil Kalkal
Zeptosecond contact times for element Z=120 synthesis
The synthesis of new superheavy elements beyond oganesson (Z=118) requires fusion reactions with projectile nuclei with proton numbers larger than that of $^{48}$Ca (Z=20), which has been successfully employed for the synthesis of elements with Z=112-118. In such reactions, fusion is drastically hindered by fast non-equilibrated dynamical processes. Attempts to produce nuclei with Z=120 using the $^{64}$Ni+$^{238}$U, $^{58}$Fe+$^{244}$Pu, $^{54}$Cr+$^{248}$Cm, and $^{50}$Ti+$^{249}$Cf reactions have been made, which all result in larger Coulomb forces than for $^{48}$Ca-induced reactions, but no discovery has been confirmed to date. In this work, mass and angle distributions of fission frag…
Quasifission Dynamics in the Formation of Superheavy Elements
The European physical journal / Web of Conferences 163, 00023 - (2017). doi:10.1051/epjconf/201716300023
Quasifission in heavy and superheavy element formation reactions
Superheavy elements are created in the laboratory by the fusion of two heavy nuclei. The large Coulomb repulsion that makes superheavy elements decay also makes the fusion process that forms them very unlikely. Instead, after sticking together for a short time, the two nuclei usually come apart, in a process called quasifission. Mass-angle distributions give the most direct information on the characteristics and time scales of quasifission. A systematic study of carefully chosen mass-angle distributions has provided information on the global trends of quasifission. Large deviations from these systematics reveal the major role played by the nuclear structure of the two colliding nuclei in de…