Physicists Maria Goeppert Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen develop a theory of the nucleus as composed of shells of protons and neutrons. It explains why nuclei ...

Since the atomic nucleus was first proposed in 1911, physicists simply assumed it was round. But are the nuclei of atoms really round? Intuitively this shape makes sense and physicists believed it ...

Researchers at CERN have made a significant breakthrough in nuclear physics by uncovering strong evidence that Tin-100 (100 Sn) has a "doubly magic" nucleus, a property that confers exceptional ...

For nuclear physicists, ‘doubly magic’ describes atomic nuclei that have greater stability than their neighbors thanks to having shells that are full occupied by both protons and neutrons. Theoretical ...

Advanced computational methods and supporting experiments, including work performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, are giving scientists a better understanding of the ...

Theoretical physicists recently used Titan, America’s most powerful supercomputer, to compute the nuclear structure of nickel-78 and found that this neutron-rich nucleus is indeed doubly magic. For ...

Some atoms are stable, while others seem to fall apart. Lead-208 will probably last forever, while the synthetic isotope technetium-99 exists for just hours. The difference lies in the structure of ...