0000000000663184
AUTHOR
Alcorta M
Decay and Fission Hindrance of Two- and Four-Quasiparticle K Isomers in 254Rf
International audience; Two isomers decaying by electromagnetic transitions with half-lives of 4.7(1.1) and 247(73) mu s have been discovered in the heavy (254)Rf nucleus. The observation of the shorter-lived isomer was made possible by a novel application of a digital data acquisition system. The isomers were interpreted as the K-pi = 8(-), nu(2)(7/2(+)[624]; 9/2(-)[734]) two-quasineutron and the K-pi = 16(+), 8(-)nu(2)(7/2(+)[624]; 9/2(-)[734] circle times 8(-)pi(2) (7/2(-)[514]; 9/2(+)[624]) four-quasiparticle configurations, respectively. Surprisingly, the lifetime of the two-quasiparticle isomer is more than 4 orders of magnitude shorter than what has been observed for analogous isomer…
Fission Barrier of Superheavy Nuclei and Persistence of Shell Effects at High Spin: Cases of 254No and 220Th
We report on the first measurement of the fission barrier height in a heavy shell-stabilized nucleus. The fission barrier height of 254No is measured to be Bf=6.0±0.5 MeV at spin 15ℏ and, by extrapolation, Bf=6.6±0.9 MeV at spin 0ℏ. This information is deduced from the measured distribution of entry points in the excitation energy versus spin plane. The same measurement is performed for 220Th and only a lower limit of the fission barrier height can be determined: Bf(I)8 MeV. Comparisons with theoretical fission barriers test theories that predict properties of superheavy elements.