J H Hamilton – författare

The aim and scope of the conference and book were to bring world leaders in the areas of fission, structure of neutron-rich nuclei, superheavy elements, astrophysics and new facilities for these research areas to present the latest developments in both theory and experiment to serve as benchmarks for future research.World leaders describe the latest research including development of new facilities under construction to point out the latest and future direction in research. These proceedings are published following the conferences every four to five years since 1997.

These proceedings are the fifth in the series of International Conferences covering fission and properties of neutron-rich nuclei, which are at the forefront of nuclear research. The time interval of 5 years between each conference allows for significant new results to be achieved. Recently, world leaders in theory and experiments in research and the development of new facilities for research presented their latest results in areas such as synthesis of superheavy elements, new facilities for and recent results with radioactive ion beams, structure of neutron-rich nuclei, nuclear fission process, fission yields and nuclear astrophysics. This book is a major source of the latest research in these areas and plans for the future. The conference brought together a unique group of over 100 speakers including leaders from the major nuclear laboratories in Canada, China, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Switerzland and the US along with leading research scientists from around the world.

This symposium on Reflections and Directions in Low Energy Heavy-Ion Physics celebrates twenty years of the University Isotope Separator at Oak Ridge (UNISOR) and ten years of the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research (JIHIR). It reflects on the accomplishments in low energy heavy-ion science and emphasizes the new directions and opportunities to be explored with low energy heavy-ion facilities. It includes a special section devoted to structure theory and another emphasizing new research to result from facilities exhibiting radioactive ion beam capabilities, new generation recoil mass spectrometers and sophisticated gamma-ray detector arrays. With the participation of leading researchers in the field, the proceedings of this conference is a major reference work for graduate students and research workers in nuclear physics.

The explosion of new data on fission processes and properties of neutron-rich nuclei made possible by new detection and accelerator facilities called forth an international conference to highlight the latest results and future directions in this rapidly developing field. The conference emphasized the following three areas: (1) fission modes and reactions — particle-induced fission, spontaneous fission, bimodal fission, Coulomb fission, fusion–fission, deep inelastic collisions, fragmentation and accelerated beams of neutron-rich nuclei; (2) fission process — isotopic and energy distributions, neutron multiplicities, spin distributions, cold fission (cluster radioactivity), ternary fission, fission isomers, fission barriers, muon fission and applications; (3) properties of neutron-rich nuclei — masses, decay properties, nuclear structure, nuclei at the drip line, and nuclear astrophysics.

This book provides an overview of the current research and future prospects in a variety of important areas in nuclear physics by leaders in their respective areas. Advances in both theory and experiments are covered. The topics included new insights into the fission process and the use of fission in the characterization of nuclear fuel waste. High spin spectroscopy studies of both proton and neutron rich nuclei are described. New and emerging areas covered include relativistic heavy ion physics at RHIC as it turns on in 1999, to new opportunities with radioactive ion beams at several laboratories, to prospects for new neutrino studies with the high intensity 1GeV proton beam from the Spallation Neutron source when it is completed in 2005. A major part of this book includes current and future research with stable and radioactive ion beams at the Holifield RIB facility and the performance and first results with the new generation recoil mass spectrometer at Holifield.

The Second International Conference on Fission and Properties of Neutron-Rich Nuclei continued the emphasis on fission models, fission processes, properties of neutron-rich nuclei and new directions. The responses to the conference were so extensive that 44 talks were presented in individual sessions and 35 more in two afternoons of parallel sessions. New insights and developments were discussed, including experimental and theoretical studies of ternary fission with correlated pairs with emission of a third nucleus such as helium-3, alpha particle, and beryllium-10; the structure of neutron-rich nuclei from spontaneous fission, heavy-ion-induced fission and knock-out reactions; comparisons of deep inelastic reactions and fission for production of neutron-rich nuclei; production of superheavy elements, including the discovery of element 114; experiments with radioactive beams; and proposals for new radioactive ion beam facilities.

This book presents more than 100 papers devoted to the understanding of fission processes and neutron-rich nuclei. All forms of fission, from spontaneous fission of 252Cf to high-energy fragmentation, are included. Together with studies on properties of neutron-rich nuclei and astrophysics, the book also features new experimental techniques, directions and the emerging new radioactive beam facilities.