Synthesis and Decay of Superheavy Elements and Heavy-Ion Collision Physics

Synthesis and Decay of Superheavy Elements and Heavy-Ion Collision Physics

This community investigates the creation, structure, and radioactive decay of the heaviest known elements, alongside the high-energy collisions of atomic nuclei that probe the fundamental properties of nuclear matter.

The research centers on the synthesis of superheavy nuclei, such as oganesson and flerovium, and the detailed measurement of their alpha decay and spontaneous fission half-limes. A significant portion of the work involves heavy-ion collisions to study nuclear structure, charge radii, and the formation of exotic isotopes. Theoretical modeling, including density functional theory and lattice QCD, is frequently applied to predict nuclear properties and understand quark-gluon plasma dynamics. Experimental techniques such as resonance ionization spectroscopy and laser spectroscopy are used to characterize these short-lived species. The work spans the actinide series and extends into the transactinide region, focusing on the limits of the periodic table and the stability of heavy nuclei.

The largest share of the community's output is found in Flerovium research, accounting for 32.4% of all Flerovium studies, and 194 papers here. Oganesson research follows with a 23.5% share, and Polonium with an 8.6% share.

The community comprises 8,744 papers, published primarily in Physical Review C, Physical Review, and Nuclear Physics A. Recent work includes the imaging of nuclear shape through anisotropic flow in high-energy collisions, the observation of hyperon polarization in proton-lead collisions, and the measurement of charge radii in exotic tin isotopes.

Papers behind this description

• Gauge/String Duality, Hot QCD and Heavy Ion Collisions — Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2023 — doi:10.1017/9781009403504
• Imaging the initial condition of heavy-ion collisions and nuclear structure across the nuclide chart — Nuclear Science and Techniques, 2024 — doi:10.1007/s41365-024-01589-w
• Thermochemical electronegativities of the elements — Nature Communications, 2021 — doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22429-0
• The quest for superheavy elements and the limit of the periodic table — Nature Reviews Physics, 2023 — doi:10.1038/s42254-023-00668-y
• Toward the Discovery of New Elements: Production of Livermorium ( Z = 116 ) with Ti 50 — Physical Review Letters, 2024 — doi:10.1103/physrevlett.133.172502
• Status of the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility in China — AAPPS bulletin, 2022 — doi:10.1007/s43673-022-00064-1
• Recent advances in chiral EFT based nuclear forces and their applications — Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, 2024 — doi:10.1016/j.ppnp.2024.104117
• Core-corona procedure and microcanonical hadronization to understand strangeness enhancement in proton-proton and heavy ion collisions in the EPOS4 framework — Physical Review C, 2024 — doi:10.1103/physrevc.109.014910
• Heavy-quark diffusion in the quark–gluon plasma — Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, 2023 — doi:10.1016/j.ppnp.2023.104020
• Heavy Quark Diffusion from 2 + 1 Flavor Lattice QCD with 320 MeV Pion Mass — Physical Review Letters, 2023 — doi:10.1103/physrevlett.130.231902
• Quark Mass Dependence of Heavy Quark Diffusion Coefficient from Lattice QCD — Physical Review Letters, 2024 — doi:10.1103/physrevlett.132.051902
• Probing Small Bjorken- x Nuclear Gluonic Structure via Coherent J / ψ Photoproduction in Ultraperipheral Pb-Pb Collisions at s NN = 5.02 TeV — Physical Review Letters, 2023 — doi:10.1103/physrevlett.131.262301
• Imaging nuclear shape through anisotropic and radial flow in high-energy heavy-ion collisions — Reports on Progress in Physics, 2025 — doi:10.1088/1361-6633/ae0fc3
• Observation of Λ Hyperon Local Polarization in p -Pb Collisions at s NN = 8.16 TeV — Physical Review Letters, 2025 — doi:10.1103/6ywq-gm61
• Abrupt structural transition in exotic molybdenum isotopes unveils an isospin-symmetric island of inversion — Nature Communications, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65621-2
• Temperature dependence of heavy quark diffusion from (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD — Journal of High Energy Physics, 2025 — doi:10.1007/jhep09(2025)180180)
• Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity deficit reduction via finite nuclear size — Physical Review Research, 2025 — doi:10.1103/z8g6-9j25
• Glauber predictions for oxygen and neon collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider — Physical Review C, 2026 — doi:10.1103/mkp8-zgxh