For the first time, a research team has successfully produced one of the most neutron-rich isotopes, hydrogen-6, in an electron scattering experiment.

The experiment at the spectrometer facility at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) particle accelerator was a joint effort among the A1 Collaboration at the Institute of Nuclear Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and scientists from China and Japan. The team presents a new method for investigating light, neutron-rich nuclei and challenges our current understanding of multi-nucleon interactions.

“This measurement could only be carried out thanks to the unique combination of the excellent quality of the MAMI electron beam and the three high-resolution spectrometers of the A1 Collaboration,” emphasized Professor Josef Pochodzalla from the JGU Institute of Nuclear Physics. Researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai in China as well as from Tohoku University Sendai and the University of Tokyo in Japan were involved in the experiment.