Superheavy element half-life measurements push back the limits of stability

The limit of known half-lives of superheavy massive nuclei has been pushed down by two orders of magnitude with the observation of the half-life of a neutron deficient rutherfordium isotope. In measuring a half-life so short, researchers demonstrated how certain excited states have longer half-lives, thus fleshing out our understanding of fission.

Within a heavy atom a delicate balance is at play, offsetting the Coulomb repulsion of the positively charged protons with just enough attractive nuclear strong forces to stop the nucleus bursting apart. Here, neutrons play a key role providing additional nucleons for the strong force to act on without dialling up the Coulomb repulsion at the same time.