Superheavy Atoms — Electrons in Strong Fields

Abstract

The production and investigation of stable superheavy atoms (αZ ≳ 1) has to remain still for a long time a “Gedankenexperiment” only. This restriction of scientific development seems to be an act of deepest philanthropy on the part of Nature, however, when considering the “gifts” that followed to date from the man-made extension of the periodic system of elements. We may therefore speculate peacefully on the properties of superheavy atoms being quite sure not to meet the day after tomorrow with superheavy bombs or rockets. On the other hand, Nature allows a short (and harmless) glance onto the shadows of superheavy atoms which are formed transiently in adiabatic heavy ion-atom collisions for tiny 10 −21s, i.e. the time where the innermost electrons are exposed to the strong field of the combined nuclear charges (Z1 + Z2 = Zu ≳ 137). It is one of the scopes of this lecture to show that some quantities measured in heavy ion collisions may render a direct’ snapshot’ of the transient superheavy atom and, therewith, of the properties of electrons bound in very strong electromagnetic fields.KeywordsInternuclear DistanceCoulomb BarrierCollision SystemScattered NucleusPositron SpectrumThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.