Superheavy elements and the island of stability

Partly settled. Some of it is understood, some is still argued about.

Ginzburg's problem #13 speculated about the long-lived isotope with Z=114, N=184 pointed to in the literature. Since then, elements up to Z=118 (oganesson) were synthesized between 2002 and 2010, and the periodic table's seventh row was completed and officially named in 2016 (including flerovium, Z=114, and oganesson, Z=118, named for Oganessian himself). These superheavy nuclei are, however, still extremely short-lived (milliseconds), so the predicted 'island of stability' of much longer-lived superheavy isotopes has not been confirmed.

Physicists are building atoms that may never have existed in the universe's history, one collision at a time, chasing a theoretical island where superheavy nuclei might live far longer than expected.

References

• What problems of physics and astrophysics seem now to be especially important and interesting (thirty years later, already on the verge of the XXI century)?, V L Ginzburg, Physics-Uspekhi 42 (4) 353-373, 1999
• Super-heavy element research, Yu. Ts. Oganessian, V. K. Utyonkov, Reports on Progress in Physics 78, 036301, 2015