Some asteroids have measured densities higher than those of any elements known to exist on Earth. This suggests that they are at least partly composed of unknown types of “ultradense” matter that cannot be studied by conventional physics.
Jan Rafelski and his team at the Department of Physics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, U.S., suggest that this could consist of superheavy elements with atomic number (Z) higher than the limit of the current periodic table.
They modeled the properties of such elements using the Thomas-Fermi model of atomic structure, concentrating particularly on a proposed “island of nuclear stability” at and around Z=164 and extending their method further to include more exotic types of ultra-dense material. This work has now been published in The European Physical Journal Plus.
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