Discovery of hydrogen 7, observation of the radioactivity of two protons… GANIL’s Caen-based researchers are constantly developing knowledge of the multifaceted science of nuclear physics.

Fundamental research is progressing. Over the past months, a number of experiments and discoveries at the GANIL (National Heavy Ion Accelerator, CEA and CNRS laboratory), in partnership with other laboratories and other nations, have led to the establishment of significant results. “We must remain at the cutting edge of world research,” explains Olivier Sorlin, a CNRS researcher at GANIL,  “Our fundamental research and the resulting instruments developed will lead the way to industrial applications.”

Hence, a European team (comprising eight European research institutes), within which GANIL’s physicists have been actively involved, has successfully characterised hydrogen 7, the most neutron-rich isotope ever observed.   “This discovery will improve our knowledge of the forces which link protons and neutrons within atomic nuclei,” pursues the researcher.  And to do so, a unique experimental device has been developed at GANIL, referred to as “Maya”, and used both as a gas target and a particle detector. “That’s what makes it all the more original. Indeed, Maya can both identify all of the products of a reaction and reconstruct their paths through the gas acting as a target. Consequently, nothing escapes it!” highlights Olivier Sorlin. And that’s not all. Maya has also enabled the compression of an unstable nucleus, Nickel 56, to be “visualised” for the first time.

Similarly, the radioactivity of two protons has been directly observed, reaching the “headlines” of Physical Review Letters, the leading international scientific journal in the field of physics. Furthermore, a time projection chamber developed at the CENBG in Bordeaux has enabled the three-dimensional visualisation of the trajectories of charged particles. GANIL’s forthcoming experiments aim at producing and observing 10 to 100 times more proton emitting nuclei. The two-proton radioactivity observed in Caen could also reveal secrets on proton pairing within the nucleus. Finally, researchers have discovered a flat form of the exotic nucleus, Silicium 42, somewhat similar to a flying saucer, an extremely rare form for an atomic nucleus. Extremes are therefore under strict surveillance at the GANIL facility!

Olivier Sorlin
One of the GANIL’s CNRS researchers
Tél. : 02 31 45 45 25
Mél : sorlin@ganil.fr

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