Formation and Studies of New Proton Emitters via Intermediate-Energy Fragmentation of Heavy-Element Beams

The possibility of generating and studying new proton-emitting nuclei using projectile fragmentation of very-heavy beams is investigated in this work. The charge, mass and velocity distributions of heavy residues from the interaction of 30 MeV / nucleon 197 Au projectiles with 90 Zr have been measured with high-resolution using the MSU A1200 fragment separator. A broad range of proton-rich nuclei are produced in this reaction. A number of new p-rich nuclei (14, of which 6 are expected to be proton emitters) are observed in the region Z = 60 - l73. The opportunity of studying proton rich nuclei produced by this approach is discussed.