Latest Findings about Assymetric Fission in the Journal "Življenje in tehnika"
An international group of scientists, the team from JSI is led by Dr. Jelena Vesić, has uncovered a new phenomenon in nuclear physics – the so-called island of asymmetric fission – at the GSI Institute in Germany. Until now, researchers believed that strongly unequal nuclear fission occurred only in the heaviest elements, but now, for the first time, it has been observed in medium-mass isotopes around mercury (Z = 80). Advanced experiments with ion beams and sophisticated detectors revealed that nuclear shapes and shell effects strongly influence the splitting process. Phenomena once thought to occur only in the heaviest elements (actinides) are now being observed in medium-mass nuclei, with significant consequences for theoretical predictions and models describing nuclear stability and the distribution of fission fragments. This discovery provides new insights into nuclear processes in stars as well as practical applications in energy and medicine, and it shows that our understanding of nuclear fission remains incomplete even after decades of research.
