Shell stabilizes nuclear instability: A new phenomenon

Abstract

Infinite nuclear matter mass model and the relativistic mean field theory show strong evidence of new neutron magic numbers 100, 150, 164; proton magic number 78 and new islands of stability around N=100, Z $\simeq$ 62; N=150, Z=78; and N= 164, Z $\simeq$ 90 in the drip-line regions of nuclear chart. It is shown that shell effect stabilizes here the instability due to nuclear force giving rise to a new phenomenon; in contrast to the phenomena of fission isomer and super heavy elements where Coulomb instability is overcome by the same.