In a surprising turn of events, an international team of scientists has found that lead-208 (208 Pb), the heaviest known "doubly magic" nucleus, exhibits unexpected shape characteristics that current ...

Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to reveal subtle details about the shapes of atomic nuclei. The method is ...

In a recent paper in Nature Physics, an international research collaboration used world-class instrumentation at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) to study the exotic nuclide, or rare isotope ...

Nuclei are not always spherical — they can stretch and twist in subtle ways. This figure maps the relationship between modern shape parameters q 2 and η, and the classic Bohr parameters β and γ, ...