Symposium Proposal:

Stable nuclei abundant in the universe are synthesized in the burning stages of stars, with unstable nuclei playing a critical role in the process. Understanding the properties of these unstable (radioactive) nuclei provides the key to our knowledge of the origin of elemental abundances. These nuclei, which greatly outnumber their stable counterparts, are short-lived and hence do not occur naturally on earth. They can only be studied by creating them in the laboratory. The past decade has seen the availability of beams of these exotic nuclei leading to an explosion of knowledge about their properties. One result is the expansion of the nuclear chart due to the creation of many new nuclei with these beams. Recent experiments with the radioactive beams to study the decay along drip lines also increase our understanding of element formation in hot stellar environments. The unique properties of some of these new nuclei are currently being explored for use in material and medical applications. The discovery of the halo nuclei where a tight nuclear core is surrounded by either a cloud of pure neutron or proton matter has caught the imagination of many scientists. For example, these nuclei may have exotic shapes, which have never been observed before and the neutron rich “halo” may allow one to glimpse at the property of neutron stars. The advance in creating heavy halo nuclei and other rare isotope beams allows one to study new forms of nuclear decay such as di-proton decay and search for weakly bound resonances and precision mass measurements. The importance of radioactive beams is demonstrated by the many facilities currently being upgraded or under construction as well as many new proposals under development. Among the Pacific Rim countries, exciting results are expected from the new Coupled Cyclotron Facility at Michigan State University, and the ISAC facility at TRIUMF in Canada. In the mean time, there are major constructions of new facilities and upgrades in the United States, Canada, Japan and China including the proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator in the US, upgrades of Riken, ISACII in TRIUMF and the heavy ion storage ring in Lanzhou, China. Thus, the PACIFICHEM 2005 to be held in Hololulu will offer an unique opportunity for scientists around the world especially those from the Pacific Rim countries to meet and discuss the new experimental results, to gain insights from each other and to plan for the future.

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ORGANISERS:

Betty Tsang, NSCL, Michigan State University, USA   tsang@nscl.msu.edu
John M. D'Auria, Simon Fraser University, Canada  dauria@sfu.ca
Ming-chung Chu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong  mcchu@phy.cuhk.edu.hk
Mahananda Dasgupta, The Australian National Unviersity, Australia  mahananda.dasgupta@anu.edu.au
Hisaaki Kudo, Niigata University, Japan   hkudo@sc.niigata-u.ac.jp

Symposium sponsored by:

ACS:  Division of Nuclear Chemistry

Canadian Society for Chemistry

Chemical Society of Japan