Tin-100, a doubly magic nucleus

A view of the experiment at the GSI from a perspective against the beam direction. The fragments are stopped at the center of a “hedgehog” of 105 liquid nitrogen-cooled gamma ray detectors, where the precise time point of the beta decay and the released decay energy are measured. Picture: Thomas Faestermann / TUM

An international collaboration, led by a group from the institute E12 of our Physik-Department, has succeeded to determine the half-live and beta-decay energy of tin-100 in an experiment at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung. From these results follows that tin-100 has the largest beta-decay strength of all atomic nuclei. Tin-100 is of particular interest, since it has, with 50 protons and 50 neutrons, completely filled shells, and is therefore called a ‘doubly magic’ nucleus.

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