Nobel Symposium NS160
Chemistry and Physics of Heavy and Superheavy Elements (Bäckaskog Castle, 2016)
This is an updated version of the NS160 website originally hosted at https://www.nuclear.lu.se/ns160/.
The proceedings of the Nobel Symposium NS160 have been available online (open access) at EPJ Web of Conferences (volume 131 (external page) , online since December 1st, 2016).
Chemistry and Physics of Heavy and Superheavy Elements
Science often develops most vigorously through challenging studies of extreme phenomena. Superheavy elements fall into such a category. In principle, superheavy elements comprise too many positively charged protons inside their nuclei to exist at all! The protons repel each other more than the strong nuclear force generally can keep them together. Nevertheless, due to specific structure effects when placing protons as well as neutrons in certain orbitals, additional nuclear binding may be generated. To obtain neutral atoms the number of protons must be balanced by the same number of negatively charged electrons. The chemistry of superheavy elements strongly depends on which orbitals the electrons are placed in, and the physics of the nucleus describes how the protons and the neutrons are kept together by the strong nuclear force. The experimental and theoretical challenges of studying heavy and superheavy elements put physics and chemistry together on the same research frontier. This is the focus of the Nobel Symposium
The following subjects will be discussed:
- Production of new superheavy elements (experiment & theory)
- Nuclear structure towards the 'Island of Stability' (experiment & theory)
- Single-atom chemistry (experiment & theory)
- Theoretical methods in physics and chemistry (theory)
- Future facilities and techniques (experiment)
International Programme Committee
Prof. Sergey N. Dmitriev, Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Dubna, Russia
Dr. Fritz Peter Heßberger, GSI Helmholtzzentrum, Darmstadt, Germany
Prof. Cecilia Jarlskog, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Prof. Björn Jonson, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Prof. Matti Leino, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Prof. Sven Lidin, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Prof. Walter D. Loveland, Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA
Prof. Witold Nazarewicz, Michigan State University, USA; Warsaw University, Poland
Prof. Pekka Pyykkö, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Prof. Hideyuki Sakai, RIKEN & University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Dr. Matthias Schädel, GSI Helmholtzzentrum, Darmstadt, Germany
Dr. Dawn A. Shaughnessy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, USA
May 29 - June 3, 2016, at Bäckaskog Castle
Nobel Symposium NS160: Chemistry and Physics of Heavy and Superheavy Elements was funded by the Nobel Foundation (external page) through its Nobel Symposia Fund and is organised by Lund University. The symposium was made possible with additional support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (external page) . The Nobel Symposia logotype is a registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation.