ISOLDE

Investigating exotic structures of exotic nuclei with Miniball

Atomic nuclei come in all manner of shapes and sizes, sometimes at the same time! The reason behind this diversity lies in poorly understood nuclear forces. Many features of these forces only came to light when studying very unstable nuclei, which…

Radioactive ion beams at ISOLDE bring the nuclear clock a tick closer

The precise measurement of time and frequencies has always played an important role in the history of science. Since the adoption of the caesium-133 standard as the definition of the second within the Système International (SI) in 1967, a network of…

The LISA project at CERN-ISOLDE

The LISA (Laser Ionisation and Spectroscopy of Actinides) consortium aims to train a new generation of experts in radioactive ion beam research and applications, laser spectroscopy, scientific laser technologies and atomic theorists whilst…

ISOLDE's Solenoidal Spectrometer (ISS): a new tool for studying exotic nuclei

The majority of atomic nuclei exist away from the valley of beta-stability, so it is perhaps unsurprising that in studying them nuclear physicists have discovered emerging phenomena not seen in stable nuclei. Changing shell structure, evolving…

The many faces of ISOLDE

You will stand across the street from the ISOLDE facility, when visiting CERN’s medical center, fire fighters, raw materials store, transport teams, or goods reception service. Located centrally at the Meyrin site (https://videos.cern.ch/record/…

ISOLDE determines precise nuclear moments by devising novel experimental technique

Nuclear quadrupole moments (Q), a measure of charge asymmetry in nuclei, are experimentally accessible via the quadrupole interaction frequency νQ=eQVzz/h. To extract Q from this information one needs to knowVzz, the electric-field gradient at the…

Secrets of beta decay unraveled at ISOLDE

Ernest Rutherford, in 1899, separated radioactive emissions into two types: alpha and beta. Becquerel, in 1900, measured the mass-to-charge ratio of beta particles and identified them as electrons. The theory of β decay was developed by Fermi in…

Pinpointing the structure of the SnV centre in diamond using emission channelling at ISOLDE

Diamond – beyond its allure as a jewel – exhibits an array of unique physical characteristics such as its hardness, the highest room thermal conductivity of any material (while being electrically insulating when undoped); it can also be doped to…

Exotic radioactive molecules could reveal physics beyond the Standard Model

The first spectroscopic study of radium monofluoride (RaF) suggests that these radioactive molecules can be used to perform high precision tests of the Standard Model of particle physics. The study was done at ISOLDE, CERN’s radioactive beam…

ISOLDE dives deeper in the mystery of the odd-even staggering effect

In a recent paper, to appear in Nature Physics in the next weeks (arXiv:1911.08765v3), the CRIS collaboration, located at the ISOLDE facility in CERN, presents measurements of charge radii of exotic copper isotopes that shed further light on one of…

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