The story of superheavy elements - those at the very end of the periodic table - is not well known outside the community of heavy-ion physicists and nuclear chemists. But it is a most interesting story which deserves to be known also to historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science and indeed to the general public. This is what the present work aims at. It tells the story or rather parts of the story, of how physicists and chemists created elements heavier than uranium or searched for them in nature. And it does so with an emphasis on the frequent discovery and naming disputes concerning the synthesis of very heavy elements. Moreover, it calls attention to the criteria which scientists have adopted for what it means to have discovered a new element. In this branch of modern science it may be more appropriate to speak of creation instead of discovery. The work will be of interest to scientists as well as to scholars studying modern science from a meta-perspective.

The second edition of "The Chemistry of the Superheavy Elements" provides a complete coverage of the chemistry of a series of elements beginning with atomic number 104 – the transactinides or superheavy elements – including their nuclear properties and production in nuclear reactions at heavy-ion accelerators. The contributors to this work include many renowned scientists who, during the last decades, have made vast contributions towards understanding the physics and chemistry of these elusive elements, both experimentally and theoretically. The main emphasis here is on demonstrating the fascinating studies involved in probing the architecture of the Periodic Table at its uppermost end, where relativistic effects drastically influence chemical properties. All known chemical properties of these elements are described together with the experimental techniques applied to study these short-lived man-made elements one atom-at-a-time. The status of theoretical chemistry and of empirical models is presented as well as aspects of nuclear physics. In addition, one chapter outlines the meanderings in this field from a historical perspective and the search for superheavy elements in Nature.

Superheavy Elements covers the proceedings of the International Symposium on Superheavy Elements, held in Lubbock, Texas on March 9-11, 1978. The book focuses on the compositions, reactions, transformations, and methodologies involved in the research on superheavy elements (SHE). The selection first gives an overview of the history and perspectives of the search for SHE; attempts to produce SHE in reactions between heavy nuclei; and searches for SHE at the superhilac. The publication also examines the experimental prospects for the synthesis and detection of SHE, including alternate production modes for SHE and detection methods in the search for SHE. The book looks at the experimental insights into the production of SHE using heavy ion reactions and observations of anomalous long-range alpha particles and their potential connection to superheavy matter. The publication also reviews the calculations for penetrability and the predictions of the spontaneous fission half-lives of SHE; feasibility studies of thermonuclear neutron capture synthesis of SHE; muonic transitions and X-ray spectra from SHE. Topics include transition energy and potential and quantum-electrodynamical corrections. The text is a dependable source of data for readers interested in superheavy elements.

This book focus on recent advances in nuclear physics and bring together experimentalists and theorists. Topics covered include neutron rich and superheavy nuclei, supernova and r-process nuclei, nuclear symmetry energy and equation of state, neutron stars, FAIR and future Dubna research, other related areas. Contents:Competition between Fusion-Fission and Quasifission in the Reactions with Heavy Ions (M G Itkis, I M Itkis, G N Knyazheva and E M Kozulin)Experiments on Superheavy Elements at the GSI SHIP (S Hofmann)New Vistas of the Structure of Neutron-Rich Nuclei — Single Particle States and g-factors (A V Ramayya, J H Hamilton, Y X Luo, S J Zhu, J K Hwang, J O Rasmussen, G M Ter-Akopian, A V Daniel, N Brewer and Y Oganessian)Superheavies: Theoretical Incitements and Predictions (V I Zagrebaev, A V Karpov, I N Mishustin and W Greiner)Soft X-Ray Reflection and Strong and Weak Field Limit Determination in Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies (Th Boller)A 100% Renewable Power System for Europe — Let the Weather and Physics Decide! (M Greiner)Happy Island (L McLerran)Signatures of the Strongly Interacting QGP in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions (E L Bratkovskaya, O Linnyk, W Cassing and V P Konchakovski)Microscopic Origin of the Shear Relaxation Time in Causal Dissipative Fluid Dynamics (G S Denicol, H Niemi, J Noronha and D H Rischke)Production of Heavy and Superheavy Nuclei in Explosive Processes (I N Mishustin)How Collective Flow Observations Indicate the QGP Fluid? (L P Csernai, Y Cheng, Sz Horvat, V K Magas, I N Mishustin, B R Schlei, D D Strottman and S Zschocke)Collective Oscillations and Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (K Kar, S Chakraborty and S Choubey)Terminating Rotational Bands in Nuclei (I Ragnarsson)and other papers Readership: Graduate students and researchers in the field of nuclear physics. Keywords:Neutron Rich and Superheavy Nuclei;Relativistic Heavy Ion Collosions;Neutron Stars

Today, we live in a time when natural elements, even the ones which are not found in Nature can be made artificially. Making chemical elements: a dream of mankind has come true. SuperHeavy Elements (SHE), much heavier than those in Nature, have recently been created and is the subject of this book. The author, an insider of SHE research, led the German group which discovered the first series of SHE created by cold fusion. The book takes you through the journey of discovering a new element and the historical development of the field. Besides picturing the author’s personal experiences, the book addresses the physics of the creation of the chemical elements in the universe and the artificial synthesis of SHE in the laboratory. This book is written for a broad readership to allow the readers to participate in the fascination and excitement of discovering a new SHE. The book is also educational as it includes basic physics and new developments of SHE research, besides the historical aspects of it. For those readers who are interested in more details of SHE research, a bibliography including popular scientific articles as well as original papers are introduced in the book.

Quantum mechanics provides the fundamental theoretical apparatus for describing the structure and properties of atoms and molecules in terms of the behaviour of their fundamental components, electrons and nudeL For heavy atoms and molecules containing them, the electrons can move at speeds which represent a substantial fraction of the speed of light, and thus relativity must be taken into account. Relativistic quantum mechanics therefore provides the basic formalism for calculating the properties of heavy-atom systems. The purpose of this book is to provide a detailed description of the application of relativistic quantum mechanics to the many-body prob lem in the theoretical chemistry and physics of heavy and superheavy elements. Recent years have witnessed a continued and growing interest in relativistic quantum chemical methods and the associated computa tional algorithms which facilitate their application. This interest is fu elled by the need to develop robust, yet efficient theoretical approaches, together with efficient algorithms, which can be applied to atoms in the lower part of the Periodic Table and, more particularly, molecules and molecular entities containing such atoms. Such relativistic theories and computational algorithms are an essential ingredient for the description of heavy element chemistry, becoming even more important in the case of superheavy elements. They are destined to become an indispensable tool in the quantum chemist's armoury. Indeed, since relativity influences the structure of every atom in the Periodic Table, relativistic molecular structure methods may replace in many applications the non-relativistic techniques widely used in contemporary research.

Shortlisted for the 2020 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books Creating an element is no easy feat. It's the equivalent of firing six trillion bullets a second at a needle in a haystack, hoping the bullet and needle somehow fuse together, then catching it in less than a thousandth of a second – after which it's gone forever. Welcome to the world of the superheavy elements: a realm where scientists use giant machines and spend years trying to make a single atom of mysterious artefacts that have never existed on Earth. From the first elements past uranium and their role in the atomic bomb to the latest discoveries stretching our chemical world, Superheavy will reveal the hidden stories lurking at the edges of the periodic table. Why did the US Air Force fly planes into mushroom clouds? Who won the transfermium wars? How did an earthquake help give Japan its first element? And what happened when Superman almost spilled nuclear secrets? In a globe-trotting adventure that stretches from the United States to Russia, Sweden to Australia, Superheavy is your guide to the amazing science filling in the missing pieces of the periodic table. By the end you'll not only marvel at how nuclear science has changed our lives – you'll wonder where it's going to take us in the future.