The IFIC participates in the pioneer discovery about nuclear fission

## The IFIC participates in the pioneer discovery about nuclear fission

Posterior view of the experiment R3B

A team from Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC, UV-CSIC) has participated in the observation of a new region of nucleus that fission asymmetrically -meaning, that they divide into two fragments of different size- in non-stable nucleus around mercury-180. This finding, published in the magazine Nature, amplifies knowledge about the production of a nuclear fission and reveals that this asymmetry can also appear in non-stable nucleus.

The discovery, done with the experiment R3B in the research centre GSI-FAIR (Darmstadt, Germany) has repercussions in the comprehension of processes that generate the heaviest chemical elements in stars, as well as in fission reactors used in the production of energy.

To carry out this experiment, the international scientific team, in which the IFIC – mix centre of the UV and the CSIC–, has designed an innovative method of fission study that allows to determinate the composition of the resulting fragments, which opens new ways to understand better this complex process.

The international collaboration R3B is formed by more than 250 scientists from 34 institutions from 12 countries, that work under the coordination of Dolores Cortina, researcher from the CSIC in the IFIC, centre that contributes as well the participation of the physicians José Benlliure and Enrique Nácher. Furthermore, the groups from the Instituto de Estructura de la Materia from the CSIC (Madrid) and the universities of de Coruña, Santiago de Compostela and Vigo, collaborate in the experiment.

The Spanish participation in the experiment R3B goes back to 2007, when the construction of the new international research centre GSI-FAIR was proposed. Ever since, Spanish researchers have contributed to the design and building of the experiment R3B. Specifically, it is worth highlighting the Spanish contribution to the building of the calorimeter of the R3B, CALIFA, and recently the building of the trace detector, that registers the trajectories of particles. The Spanish team also leads some of the main research programmes that are developed with R3B, studies about nuclear fission and characterisation of dense matter as the one that constitutes neutrons stars particularly.

This participation of Spanish research groups in R3B is funded by many programmes from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, as well as European and regional programmes (Generalitat Valenciana and Xunta de Galicia).

**References:**

*An asymmetric fission island driven by shell effects in light fragments*. *Nature* (2025). **P. Morfouace****,****J. Taieb****,****A. Chatillon****,****L. Audouin****,****G. Blanchon****,****R. N. Bernard****,****N. Dubray****,****N. Pillet****,****D. Regnier****,****H. Alvarez-Pol****,****F. Amjad****,****P. André****,****G. Authelet****,****L. Atar****,****T. Aumann****,****J. Benlliure****,****K. Boretzky****,****L. Bott****,****T. Brecelj****,****C. Caesar****,****P. Carpentier****,****E. Casarejos****,****J. Cederkäll****,****A. Corsi****,****M. Zhukov****et alii.*****Nature*****volume 641, pages 339–344 (2025)**

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