How US physicists played God, created a new element called Livermorium using titanium particle beam

A team of scientists and researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California recently announced a groundbreaking achievement: the creation of livermorium, or element 116, using a titanium particle beam.

This marks the first time livermorium has been synthesized with this method, bringing researchers closer to the elusive “island of stability,” where superheavy elements are theorized to have longer lifespans, making them easier to study. More importantly, this marks the first time that a Superheavy Element has been created by humans, in this manner.

Reiner Kruecken, the director of nuclear science at Berkeley Lab, expressed optimism about the discovery, noting the cooperative nature of the experiment. He mentioned that producing element 120, the next target, would take significantly longer but now appears feasible. This announcement was made at the Nuclear Structure 2024 conference, with the research paper soon to be available on the preprint repository arXiv and submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters.

Innovative Use of Titanium Beam to Create Element 116
In their experiment, the scientists utilized a beam of titanium-50, a specific isotope, to generate livermorium, making it the heaviest element created at Berkeley Lab to date. This laboratory has a rich history of elemental discovery, contributing to the identification of 16 elements ranging from Technetium (43) to Seaborgium (106).

Jacklyn Gates, who led the recent effort, expressed confidence in the results, stating that the chances of the findings being a statistical anomaly were incredibly slim. The process involved heating titanium to nearly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,649 degrees Celsius) until it vaporized. The team then bombarded the vaporized titanium with microwaves, stripping it of 22 electrons and preparing the ions for acceleration in Berkeley Lab’s 88-Inch Cyclotron.

The accelerated titanium ions were directed at a plutonium target, with trillions of ions striking the target each second. This intense bombardment ultimately led to the creation of two livermorium atoms over a 22-day period. Using titanium for this purpose represents a new technique for synthesising heavier elements, as previous elements in this range, from 114 to 118, were made using a calcium-48 beam.

Jennifer Pore, a nuclear physicist in Berkeley Lab’s heavy element group, highlighted the significance of this method. Creating element 116 with titanium validates this new approach, setting the stage for future experiments to produce even heavier elements, such as element 120.

The hunt for Element 120
The successful creation of element 116 has set the stage for the team’s next ambitious goal: synthesising element 120. If achieved, element 120 would be the heaviest atom yet created and a part of the “island of stability,” a theoretical group of superheavy elements predicted to have longer lifespans than those discovered so far.

The lab plans to start attempting to create element 120 in 2025. The process is expected to take several years, reflecting the complexity and challenges inherent in this cutting-edge research. The physicists are navigating the frontiers of the periodic table, striving to push the boundaries of human knowledge and understanding by exploring the limits of atomic stability.

This significant achievement not only demonstrates the innovative capabilities of Berkeley Lab’s scientists but also paves the way for future discoveries in the realm of superheavy elements, potentially unlocking new insights into the fundamental nature of matter.