Island of stability

The island of stability is a predicted region of superheavy nuclei whose proton and neutron configurations give them longer half-lives than neighboring nuclei.

Nuclear shell model: A model describing atomic nuclei as protons and neutrons occupying quantized energy levels. Its nuclear energy levels produce the shell closures expected to stabilize superheavy nuclei.
Maria Goeppert Mayer: A physicist who helped establish the nuclear shell model and shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics. Her shell-model work supplied a foundation for predicting enhanced stability at closed nuclear shells.
Superheavy element: A chemical element with an atomic number beyond that of the actinides, generally produced in laboratories. Island-of-stability predictions guide searches for the heaviest possible elements.
Liquid-drop model: A nuclear model that treats the nucleus as a charged drop of nearly incompressible nuclear matter. Its smooth estimates omit the shell corrections that generate the island’s predicted stability.
Magic number (physics): A proton or neutron count that completes a nuclear shell and is associated with unusual nuclear stability. The island is predicted near proton and neutron counts that close nuclear shells.
J. Hans D. Jensen: A German physicist who independently developed the nuclear shell model and shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics. His shell-model calculations helped make nuclear magic numbers central to stability predictions.
Nuclear reaction: A process in which atomic nuclei collide or transform, producing different nuclei or particles. Fusion reactions are used to create candidate superheavy nuclei for stability studies.
Nuclear landscape: The set of atomic nuclei arranged by proton and neutron number and characterized by their properties. The island is a localized feature within the broader pattern of nuclear stability.
Nuclear shell closure: A filled set of nuclear energy levels that separates one shell from the next. Shell closures create energy gaps that can increase binding and delay decay.
Aage Bohr: A Danish physicist whose work helped develop the unified model of the atomic nucleus. His nuclear-structure theory formed part of the framework later extended to superheavy nuclei.

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