What Would You do to Discover Super-Heavy Elements?

[bigyihsuan]

Assuming that you have unlimited funding, resources, etc. and access to all of the particle accelerators in the world, what would you do to find the super-heavy elements?

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Considering I have unlimited funding, I would build several more Large Hadron Colliders and run all of them at once with the same experiment in each. Once I reach the Island of Stability, I'll keep going until I get to the point where the elements just destroy themselves from spontaneous decay, or something significantly more exotic that hasn't been discovered yet and destroys a radius around the machines.

[Stargate525]

Unlimited funding and resources?

I'd head out to my nearest neutron star, harvest some of the gunk from it's surface.

[WestAir]

How do you harvest from a Neutron Star without the equipment becoming part of the star?

Hurl a high-speed missile at it then collect the jettisoned, escaping particles?

[Nuke]

i assume you are looking to produce island of stability elements? the kind which would probibly make it possible to make really tiny primaries for nuclear weapons and other cool things.

[dharak1]

I would immediately pay everyone that owns a periodic table poster enough to re-size the 8-foot wall its on to 16 feet so it could fit the new periodic table.

[helaeon]

Realize that what we're doing isn't working and we probably don't know enough to make good choices about what to do next or what might work.

1. research the properties of the neutron along with the strong and weak nuclear forces.

2. begin research into alternate ways to do nuclear fusion besides particle colliders. - This would also assist with fusion power research. Neutron stars have already been mentioned, figuring out how to do that on a small scale or if it's even possible would probably be a good avenue.

Back to fundamentals rather than more of the status quo, with more power, more money, and more time. All getting the same results.

The LHC is not well suited or designed create new elements. And it's entirely possible that the way we've been making new elements using particle colliders is a poor way to go about it and isotopes of those may exist that are more stable but we don't know enough to even know if that's true. I know that current methods cannot supply enough neutrons to use as glue to make super large nuclei they think might be in the island of stability, so that gets into the alternate ways of nuclear fusion. Keep in mind too that the island of stability is wholly theoretical and may not actually be a thing. The periodic table as we know it might be it, lead might be the heaviest stable element period. So, start a project to prove the island of stability is non-existent because trying to disprove a theory as written is when you start to find new physics. Science is about using observation and to find out about where we are wrong about our understanding and where our models fail - so we need to make new models that work. Its not about proving how smart we are.

[Top8]

I like the idea of massive particle accelerators in space - where hard vacuum and cold temps are easier to generate. Of course micrograv means they could be huge - once we have even a bit of Lunar industry its doable.

[MC.STEEL]

Its simple really ill just harvest a bit of you moma because shes so heavy she has a density of elemental isotope 479

EDIT;Do you think some of them get more stable down the line?

Like two rows down the elements stop being decaying within a few microseconds and start having a half life of 45million years or something like that.

Edited January 26, 2014 by MC.STEEL

[Top8]

I have encountered the term "islands of stability" but explanations of the underlying physics are usually lacking in substance. It is certainly possible for superheavies to exist within current frameworks.

[Nuke]

i dont think the issue is the size of the collider. its the very miniscule half lives of some of the precursors thats the issue. i read about one issue trying to create and detect ununseptium where the fusion target consisting of berkelium-249 (which only lives 330 days which needed 90 days of cooling and 90 days of chemical purification) was held up in russian customs do to lack of paperwork. it actually crossed the atlantic 5 times before it was allowed entry. this is the kinda stuff you have to deal with. i think things would be easier if we had a consolidated super heavy elements lab where elements could both be produced and tested.

[Skyler4856]

Build a particle accelerator large enough to verify string theory

[bendeezer]

How do you harvest from a Neutron Star without the equipment becoming part of the star?

Hurl a high-speed missile at it then collect the jettisoned, escaping particles?

With unlimited funds you could get several ghostbuster-like positron packs mount them to your space craft, extend out a thethered a protoplasmic trap, put the nuetron star in your target reticle, and then CROSS THE STREAMS! The only potential hazard is that you might obliterate the universe. A risk well worth taking if you ask me!

[Sillychris]

I'd work on combining laser cooling (ie optical tweezers) and neutron bombardment.