STRONGLY ENHANCED LOW ENERGY α-PARTICLE DECAY IN HEAVY ACTINIDE NUCLEI AND LONG-LIVED SUPERDEFORMED AND HYPERDEFORMED ISOMERIC STATES

Unidentified low energy and very enhanced α-particle groups have been observed in various actinide fractions produced via secondary reactions in a CERN W target which had been irradiated with 24-GeV protons. In particular, 5.14, 5.27 and 5.53 MeV α-particle groups with corresponding half-lives of 3.8±1.0 y, 625±84 d and 26±7d, have been seen in Bk, Es and Lr-No sources, respectively. The measured energies are a few MeV lower than the known ground state to ground state α-decays in the corresponding neutron-deficient actinide nuclei. The half-lives are 10⁴ to 10⁷ shorter than expected from energy versus lifetime relationship for such low-energy α-particles in this region of nuclei. The deduced evaporation residue cross sections are in the mb region, about 10⁴ times higher than expected. Not only is it impossible to identify these α-decays with any known activity in the whole nuclear chart, but they also could not be due to hypothetically unknown isomeric states in various conceivable neutron deficient nuclei, nor due to unknown isomeric states in the rare-earth region. Based on the fact that in other experiments we have found isomeric states in the second and third minima of the potential for other heavy ion reaction products, one can now understand in a quantitative way, both the unusual low energies, the unusual enhanced lifetimes and the unusual large production cross sections, in terms of production of similar isomeric states in appropriate actinide isotopes. Some consequences regarding the production of the long-lived superheavy elements are also discussed.