https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00253-y
Production and properties of the heaviest elements
Status and perspectives
1
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
2
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
3
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität-München, 85748 Garching, Germany
4
Technische-Universität-München, 85748 Garching, Germany
Corresponding author: a michael.sewtz@physik.uni-muenchen.de
Received:
29
May
2007
Published online:
14
August
2007
This article reviews the following topics which were discussed at the 375th Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Seminar Workshop on the Atomic Properties of the Heaviest Elements held from September 25–27, 2006 at the Abtei Frauenwörth im Chiemsee, Germany: (i) the recent progress in the production of the heaviest elements, the investigation of their nuclear structure, and prospects for direct mass measurements in Penning traps. (ii) Recent studies of their chemical properties with the aid of volatile species and single-atom aqueous-phase chemistry; (iii) the current status and future prospects for the investigation of atomic and ionic properties such as optical spectroscopy in gas cells and ion traps, including fully relativistic calculations of the atomic level structure with predictions for the element nobelium; and (iv) ionic charge radii measurements in buffer gas filled drift cells, and ion chemical reactions in the gas phase.
PACS: 27.90+b – 220≤A / 25.60 Pj – Fusion reactions / 31.10.+z – Theory of electronic structure, electronic transitions, and chemical binding / 32.30.-r – Atomic spectra / 51.10.+y – Kinetics and transport theory of gases
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2007