This Calculation Could Change The Periodic Table

TL;DR

A new top-down calculation finally explains why certain nuclei are uniquely stable, potentially locating the "island of stability" near atomic number 120.

Key Points

• 1.The periodic table may expand beyond element 118 (Oganesson). Experiments have tentatively found evidence for elements 119 and 120, though unconfirmed; Oganesson-294 has a lifetime of about one microsecond and was first discovered in Russia in 2002.
• 2.The "island of stability" predicts heavier nuclei could become longer-lived near atomic number 120. Estimates of how long these nuclei might last range from seconds to minutes, but shifting predictions over the past decade revealed that phenomenological shell models can't be trusted for extrapolation.
• 3.Nuclear "magic numbers" — 2, 8, 20, 28, and beyond — mark energy gaps where nuclei are especially stable. These gaps make decay difficult; the same magic numbers also influence which elements are produced in supernovae, but physicists lacked a fundamental explanation for them until now.
• 4.The new paper derives nuclear stability from first principles using the symmetries of the strong nuclear force. By focusing on three-nucleon interactions and their combined spin contributions, the model fits observations remarkably well and sets the stage for calculating exactly where the next magic nuclei — and the island of stability — lie.