End of the magic: Shell model for beryllium isotopes invalidated
Thursday, April 5, 2012 - 08:02
in Physics & Chemistry
A research group led by Professor Dr. Wilfried Nortershäuser has, for the first time, managed to measure the size of the charge distribution in the atomic nucleus of the highly exotic beryllium-12 isotope. The researchers were surprised to find that the so-called charge radius increases in comparison with that of the beryllium-11 isotope, while the radius of the matter distribution was significantly smaller. These findings contradict the famous shell-model in nuclear physics regarding the structure of atomic nuclei as it was expected that the nuclear charge radius would also be smaller.