New Gamma Detector Array Finds Evidence of Hyperdeformed Nuclei

Abstract

How much spin can a nucleus take before centrifugal force pulls it apart? A surprising answer is proffered by one of the first physics results from the Gammasphere facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Gammasphere is the first of a new generation of nuclear‐physics photon detector arrays. In June the Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Washington University collaboration at Gammasphere published evidence that gadolinium‐147 nuclei might be reaching angular momenta as high as 90ħ without succumbing to fission. “That's embarrassingly high,” says collaboration leader Demetrios Sarantites, “because the theory says that the barrier against fission should vanish at around 80ħ.”