The Island of Stability

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Randy tells Jim about the Island of Stability. This is a theoretically predicted region (or two, in one calculation) where the isotopes of atoms with heavy nuclei are stable. Jim and Randy talk about the islands, how they are attempting to get there, and some of the calculations people use to predict the stability of elements. Along the way, they mispronounce a lot of words.

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Notes:

1. The papers we read for this program:

• Karpov, A.V.,Zagrebaev, V.I., Martinez Palenzuela, Y., Felipe Ruiz, L., and Greiner, W., "Decay Properties and Stability of Heaviest Elements." International Journal of Modern Physics E 21, 1250013 (2012).
• Oganessian, Y.T., "Synthesis of a New Element with Atomic Number Z = 117." Physical Review Letters 104, 142502 (2010).
• Zagrebaev, V., Karpov, A., and Geiner, W., "Future of Superheavy Element Research: Which Nuclei Could Be Synthesized within the Next Few Years?" Journal of Physics Conference Series 420 012001 (2013) [arXiv]

2. The book I talked about on fluids that goes into the fluid model of the nucleus is Introduction to the Physics of Fluids and Solids by James S. Trefil, which is apparently no longer in print (I have a Dover edition, I love Dover). My favorite Modern Physics text is Rohlf, mostly because of its focus on scattering, but I taught from Serway, which is more standard.


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