Decay spectroscopy of suburanium isotopes following projectile fragmentation of 238U at 1 GeV/u

Charged-particle decay spectroscopy of heavy suburanium isotopes produced by projectile fragmentation of 1 GeV/u 238U was tested using a simple implantation–decay set-up equipped with fast-reset preamplifiers. The products were separated and identified with the GSI fragment separator (FRS) and implanted into a stack of Si detectors. Measurements were performed of implantation decay correlations of nuclei with half-lives in the range of 0.1–100 ms. Yields of very neutron-deficient protactinium, thorium and actinium isotopes were measured and yield extrapolations imply that with the availability of a beam intensity of 109 ions/s, projectile fragmentation of relativistic 238U can be an effective method to access new nuclear species including possible proton emitters in the suburanium region.