Experiments on neutron-rich atomic nuclei could help scientists to understand nuclear reactions in exploding stars
Friday, November 29, 2013 - 08:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Almost all the mass of an atom is concentrated in its nucleus in the form of protons and neutrons. Some nuclei are intrinsically unstable, existing for only a short time before decaying into stable nuclei. Understanding why some nuclei are stable and others are not could help to explain the presence of matter in the Universe. Hiroshi Watanabe at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science and an international team of scientists have now shown experimentally that nuclei with many neutrons can be more stable than might be expected, but only if the number of neutrons is just right.