Russian scientists obtained the first batch of Muscovite nuclei at the DC-280 accelerator - a factory of superheavy elements

Russian scientists have successfully completed a series of experiments, during which they were able to immediately record 27 occurrences of nuclei of such an element as Muscovium (element 115).

This result became possible after a deep modernization of such a device as DC-280, which is also called the "factory for the production of superheavy elements."

The staff of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) announced their success at a regular meeting of the Program Advisory Committee on Nuclear Physics.

It is worth noting that over the past two decades, employees of the institute have successfully synthesized five new elements at once, which complete the seventh period of the periodic table, namely:

All of the above elements were obtained in a series of experiments carried out on the U-400 and U-400M installations, in which a specially prepared target, assembled from heavy elements, was bombarded with concentrated ion stream.

Both experimental devices have been modernized more than once. But in order to take a step forward and fix such elements as 119 and 120, as well as in detail to study the previously noted elements 114, 115, 116, 117 and 118, it was still necessary to significantly increase power.

For this reason, back in the 2000s, it was decided to assemble an updated installation, which is required to produce an ion flux 10 times greater than that of the U-400. From 1 microampere, the power should have increased to 10 microamperes.

Such an increase would make it possible to increase the number of collisions of ions with the target, and hence to increase the number of new nuclei formed.

So, almost 20 years later, the assembled DC-280 device was turned on for the first time in March 2019, and already on November 26, 2020, a series of experiments on obtaining a superheavy element of Muscovite during the interaction of a target in the person of americium-243 and a projectile calcium-48.

So scientists during the experiment, which took place until December 20, managed to count 27 events of the appearance of Muscovy - the 115th element. The number of registered particles obtained in this short period was more than it was possible to record their appearance in other installations, starting from 2003.

So in the course of the experiment, when the nuclei of americium-243 and calcium-48 collided, the so-called "compound nucleus" with a mass of 291 initially appeared. Then it lost its initial temperature, while losing from two to four neutrons. And the output was Muscovium isotopes with masses of 289, 288, and 287, respectively.

The lifetime of isotopes ranged from a couple of hundredths of a second to a few seconds, then the process of decomposition into various chains took place.

In the near future, engineers plan to carry out another series of experiments, the purpose of which will be collision of plutonium-242 and calcium-48 and obtaining 114 elements - flerovium and further study of it chemical properties.

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