Physicists Discover an Atomic Oddity

[Astronuc]

I haven't had time to digest this, but - http://www.physorg.com/news10263.html

Sam Tabor, a professor of experimental nuclear physics at FSU and director of the university's Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory, recently performed the experiment at the GSI laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany, in collaboration with the international team. In the experiment, a cigar-shaped atom was created using a particle collider. To the scientists' surprise, this atom demonstrated a novel kind of radioactive decay by spitting out two free protons at the same time.

At the GSI lab, Tabor and his colleagues bombarded a thin film of nickel foil with a beam of calcium atoms, causing some nickel and calcium ions to coalesce to form silver atoms with fewer neutrons than normal. Most of these silver atoms decayed conventionally, but a few ejected two protons at once.

The deficit of neutrons in the silver had deformed the nuclei from spheres into fat cigar shapes. In some cases the proton pairs jumped out from the same end of the cigar, at other times from opposite ends, but they were always perfectly synchronized, Tabor said.

The collaborators now are discussing future directions for their research. "However," Tabor said, "we are also performing related research at the Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory right here at FSU.

I wonder how far from Disney World this place is - eh, Zz?

 

[ZapperZ]

I wonder how far from Disney World this place is - eh, Zz?

Tallahassee is, unfortunately, rather far from Orlando.

Anyway, if you're citing the same experiment, Astronuc, then... er... isn't this rather "old"? :)

http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/6/9/8/1

Zz.

 

[sir-pinski]

This is a very interesting discovery by Professor Sam Tabor and his team. The fact that they were able to create a cigar-shaped atom using a particle collider and observe a novel type of radioactive decay is truly remarkable. It just goes to show how much more there is to discover about the atomic world and how advancements in technology are allowing us to do so.

The synchronized ejection of two protons from the same or opposite ends of the cigar-shaped atom is also fascinating. It raises questions about the structure and behavior of these deformed nuclei and what other oddities may be waiting to be discovered. It's great to hear that Professor Tabor and his colleagues will continue their research in this area, and it will be exciting to see what they uncover next.

On a lighter note, I also found it amusing that Professor Tabor mentioned the distance from Disney World to the Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory. It just goes to show that even in the world of physics, a little bit of humor can be found. Overall, this is a fantastic discovery and I look forward to reading more about it as the research progresses.