Seminar Details

Synthetic Paths to the Heaviest Elements

Walter Loveland, Oregon State University
Wednesday, November 28, 4:00 PM - Nuclear Science Seminar
NSCL Lecture Hall

I discuss the nuclear reactions/mechanisms used in the synthesis of the heaviest nuclei. For complete fusion reactions, involving stable or radioactive beams, the cross section for producing a heavy reaction product, EVR, can be represented as where capture(Ec.m., J) is the cross section at center of mass energy Ec.m. and spin J. PCN is the probability that the projectile-target system will evolve from the contact configuration to inside the fission saddle point to form a completely fused system rather than re-separating (quasifission, fast fission). Wsur is the probability that the completely fused system will de-excite by neutron emission rather than fission. I discuss the results of recent experiments that characterize these quantities in heavy element synthesis reactions. I point out the opportunities afforded by radioactive beams in heavy element synthesis, as well as the use of damped collisions and multi-nucleon transfer reactions.