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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Squashed nuclei undermine long-held doctrine of nuclear structure

Stable cadmium nuclei can change shape even when their energies are low.
8pi spectrometer in TRIUMF Lab.

Data collected by the 8π spectrometer (pictured) at the TRIUMF particle-accelerator centre in Vancouver, Canada, suggest that some cadmium nuclei can take on shapes similar to those of rugby balls. Credit: TRIUMF

A cadmium atom’s nucleus shape-shifts even when its energy is low — a finding that overturns a widely held conviction about the structure of atomic nuclei.

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Nature 574, 299 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03006-4

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