The study of physical systems under extreme conditions offers valuable insights into their organization and structure. In nuclear physics, neutron-rich isotopes, especially the light ones with neutron-to-proton ratio significantly different from that of stable nuclei, provide stringent tests of modern nuclear structure theories. These isotopes exist as very short-lived resonances, decaying through spontaneous neutron emission.
Now, in a new study published in Nature, an international collaboration of researchers led by Yosuke Kondo, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics at Tokyo Institute of Technology, reports the first observation of two such isotopes—oxygen-28 (28O) and oxygen-27 (27O)—through their decay into oxygen-24 with four and three neutrons, respectively.
The nucleus 28O, which consists of eight protons and 20 neutrons (N), is of significant interest as it is expected to be one of the few ‘doubly magic’ nuclei in the standard shell-model picture of nuclear stru
