New Element Z=122

1

Evidence for a long-lived superheavy nucleus with atomicmass number A = 292 and atomic number Z

≅

122 in naturalTh

A. Marinov

1

, I. Rodushkin

2

,

D. Kolb

3

, A. Pape

4

, Y. Kashiv

1

, R. Brandt

5

, R.V. Gentry

6

&H.W. Miller

7

1

Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel

2

Analytica AB, Aurorum 10, S-977 75 Lule

å

, Sweden

3

Department of Physics, University GH Kassel, 34109 Kassel, Germany

4

IPHC-UMR7178, IN2P3-CNRS/ULP, BP 28, F-67037 Strasbourg cedex 2, France

5

Kernchemie, Philipps University, 35041 Marburg, Germany

6

Earth Science Associates, P.O. Box 12067, Knoxville, TN 37912-0067, USA

7

P.O. Box 1092, Boulder, CO 80306-1092, USA

Evidence for the existence of a superheavy nucleus with atomic mass numberA=292 and abundance (1-10)x10

-12

relative to

232

Th has been found in a study of naturalTh using inductively coupled plasma-sector field mass spectrometry. The measuredmass matches the predictions

1,2

for the mass of an isotope with atomic number Z=122 ora nearby element. Its estimated half-life of t

1/2

≥

10

8

y suggests that a long-lived isomericstate exists in this isotope. The possibility that it might belong to a new class of long-livedhigh spin super- and hyperdeformed isomeric states is discussed.

3-6

The question “how heavy can a nucleus be” is a fundamental problem in nuclear physics.

7

Experimentally, elements up to Z=118 have been produced synthetically by heavy-ionreactions,

8,9

with the half-lives of the Z=106 to 118 nuclei ranging from a few minutes toabout a millisecond. However, in a recent study of natural Th substances,

10

long-livedisomeric states with estimated half-lives t

1/2

≥

10

8

y, 16 to 22 orders of magnitude longer thantheir corresponding ground states (g.s.), have been observed in the neutron-deficient

211,213,217,218

Th nuclei. It has been hypothesized

10

that they might belong to the recently

PDF created with pdfFactory trial versionwww.softwarelabs.com

2

discovered

3-6

class of long-lived high spin isomeric states in the second minimum(superdeformed (SD) minimum)

11,12

and/or in the third minimum (hyperdeformed (HD)minimum)

13-15

of the nuclear potential energy when plotted as a function of deformation. Thisresult motivated us to search for long-lived superactinide elements in natural materials.According to the extended periodic table,

16

the superactinides are classified as homologues of the actinides, with elements 122 and 124 placed as eka-Th and eka-U, respectively. As aworking hypothesis, it is reasonable to assume that if any of the superactinide elements existsin nature they might be carried along with Th and/or U substances. Here we report evidencefor the existence of a nucleus with atomic mass number 292 that was found in natural Th withan estimated half-life of

≥

10

8

y and an abundance of (1-10)x10

-12

relative to

232

Th. Itsmeasured mass matches the predictions

1,2

for the mass of an isotope with atomic numberZ=122 and also some isobars of neighbouring elements. Based on theoretical chemicalpredictions

17

it is argued that it is probably element 122. Preliminary results of this work havebeen presented previously.

18

The mass M

A

of an atom is equal to:M

A

= Z x M

H

+ N x M

n

– BE (1)where M

H

and M

n

are the masses of the hydrogen atom and the neutron, respectively, and BEis the binding energy of the nucleus. The binding energy per nucleon (BE/u) of stable nucleihas a broad maximum around A

≈

60, with a value of 8.7 MeV/u, which falls monotonicallyto about 7.6 MeV/u at Th and U.

19

The predicted BE/u values for the superactinide nuclei arearound 6.9 MeV/u.

1,2,20,21

Therefore, masses of superactinide isotopes are higher than, andresolvable from, the masses of all molecules with the same mass number, except formultihydrogen-containing molecules. This is seen in Fig. 1, where the systematic behaviourof the masses

22

of various M=292 species, from the symmetric combination

146

Nd

2

to Pb-, Th-and U-based molecules to the predicted

1,2

masses of the

292

122 and

292

124 nuclei aredisplayed. The masses of the very neutron-rich

292

Th and

292

U nuclei are predicted to be292.399 and 292.362 u,

20

values well above the expected masses of the

292

122 and

292

124nuclei, that are 292.243 and 292.264 u, repectively.

1,2

(The calculated masses of these two

PDF created with pdfFactory trial versionwww.softwarelabs.com

3

nuclei in Refs.

1,2

agree to within 0.001 u.) Thus, as was demonstrated before,

23

accurate massmeasurements are an effective tool in searching for naturally occurring superheavy elements.In principle, natural minerals like monazite, which is the usual source material for Th,would be the most promising materials to study. However, background was the main obstaclewhen looking for isotopes with relative abundance of (1-10)x10

-11

in natural materials.

10

Therefore, purified natural Th was used in our measurements.In the present work, we performed accurate mass measurements for masses 287 to 294 inTh solutions. Evidence was obtained for the existence of an isotope with a mass that matchesthe predictions for atomic mass number 292 and Z around 122. Here we describe thisobservation.The experimental procedure was similar to that described earlier.

10

Inductively coupledplasma-sector field mass spectrometry (ICP-SFMS) was used for the experiments. The ICP-SFMS is an Element2 (Finnigan, Thermo-Electron, Bremen, Germany). In this instrument, asolution of the material to be studied is introduced into a high temperature (6000-8000 K)plasma source. At these temperatures, predominantly atomic species are present. Molecularions are produced after the source, mainly by interaction with oxygen and hydrogen ions fromthe solution. The predefined medium resolution mode, m/

∆

m = 4000 (10% valley definition),was used throughout to separate atomic ions from molecules with the same mass number. Thesensitivity-enhanced set-up of the instrument was similar to that described in Ref.

24

This set-up provided sensitivity for

232

Th in this resolution mode of up to 2x10

8

counts s

-1

mg

-1

l

-1

. Thesample uptake rate was 60-80