When a nucleus has a ‘magic’ number of neutrons or protons, it is particularly stable. But it seems that for exotic nuclei, with large numbers of neutrons relative to protons, these magic ...

Gaps in nuclear levels, which cause nuclei with ‘magic’ numbers of protons or neutrons to be especially stable, seem to be different for nuclei with an excess of neutrons. But are all magic ...

The race to figure out what made these nuclei so stable began. Understanding these magic numbers would allow scientists to predict the properties of other nuclei, such as their mass or how long ...

These nuclei had specific numbers of protons or neutrons, or magic numbers, as physicist Eugene Wigner called them. The race to figure out what made these nuclei so stable began. Understanding ...

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei — the center part of atoms, which make up all matter — were more ...

The discovery overturns some of scientists’ previous notions about magic numbers and opens up a new line of inquiry for nuclear physics. Inside nuclei, protons and neutrons fill up separate ...

magic and doubly magic nuclei result in stable nuclei. These "magic numbers" are 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126. For magic nuclei, the number of neutrons or protons is equal to the magic number ...

When proton or neutron shells are filled with 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, or 126 nucleons, these numbers are called “magic” and nuclei assume spherical shapes. In contrast, nuclei lose their ...

It is therefore termed “doubly magic” and is extremely stable. Other magic numbers include 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126. However, there are significant exceptions to this shell model of the nucleus and ...

Measurements made with silicon-42 - which contains 14 protons and 28 neutrons - will shed new light on the concept of "magic numbers" in nuclei (Nature 435 922). Most nuclei contain similar numbers of ...

It takes more energy to excite and destabilize nuclei with complete shells. So if an atom has a magic number of protons, it will be tougher than one which does not. Similarly if an atom has a ...