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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 |
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Double Nuclei At Darmstadt
At the GSI Darmstadt (West Germany) heavy ion facility, particle physicists have been firing heavy nuclei at each other. Some very suggestive evidence has turned up that giant nuclei are being formed with atomic weights and numbers approximately double those of the colliding nuclei. The words "giant nuclear molecule" and "giant di-nuclear system" are being bandied about. Two nuclei of uranium-238 might, for example, unite for 10-19 second in a supernucleus. As the author of this article says, "What is going on?"
(Silver, Joshua; "Giant Nucleus at Darmstadt?" Nature, 315:276, 1985.)