ELEMENT 115 X-ray evidence supports the existence of the superheavy element

Abstract

Confirmatory evidence for the existence of element 115 has been reported by an international research team that successfully used X-ray detection methods for the first time. The new work should bolster the case for adding the element to the periodic table almost a decade after it was first spotted. Nuclear physicist Dirk Rudolph of Lund University, in Sweden, led the team. The scientists did the experiment at the GSI heavy ion accelerator center in Darmstadt, Germany. A paper of the work has been accepted by Physical Review Letters. Element 115 was first observed by physicists at Russia’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research working with scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. An international committee of chemists and physicists will decide whether to add the element to the periodic table. Rudolph’s team created element 115 by aiming a beam of calcium ions at an americium target. Sifting through the jumble of photons, ...