Journal of Isotopes (Apr 2022)
Progress in the Production of New Radioactive Nuclides Based on Large-Scale Scientific Facilities
Abstract
The production of new radioactive nuclides is a hot topic of nuclear physics in recent years, which is essential for expanding the nuclide landscape, studying the structure and properties of exotic nuclei, and understanding the rapid neutron capture process in nuclear astrophysics. The understanding of atomic nuclei is mainly focused on long-lived nuclides near the stability line, and several sets of models have been established to explain their fundamental properties. However, there is a lack of research on nuclides far from the stability line, especially for the neutron-rich nuclei in heavy mass region. The main features and scientific objectives of various international large-scale scientific facilities are introduced in this paper, such as HIRFL (Heavy Ions Research Facility) in Lanzhou, HIAF (High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility) in Huizhou, ISOL (Isotope Separator Online facility) in Beijing, DRIBs (Dubna Radioactive Ion Beam accelerator complex) in Dubna, 88-inch cyclotron in Berkeley, NSCL (National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory) in MSU (Michigan State University), ATLAS (Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System) in Argonne, FAIR (Facility for Antiprotons and Ion Research), RARF (RIKEN Accelerator Research Facility) in RIKEN and SPIRAL2 (Système de Production d'Ions Radioactifs en Ligne-2) in GANIL, etc. An overview of the discovery of new nuclides and their main production methods in recent years is given, which provides important references for study of radioactive nuclides in the future, especially for super-heavy nuclei. Fusion evaporation reaction mechanism is a significant method for the synthesis of super-heavy nuclei. At present, almost all of the super-heavy nuclei were synthesized by that method. However, due to the limitation of the number of available stable projectiles, the nuclides produced by fusion reaction are all neutron-deficient. In recent years, the multinucleon transfer reactions have attracted extensive attention. Experimental and theoretical studies show that multinucleon transfer reaction is a promising way to produce neutron-rich nuclei.
