- David, HM
- Chen, J
- Seweryniak, D
- Kondev, FG
- Gates, JM
- Gregorich, KE
- Ahmad, I
- Albers, M
- Alcorta, M
- Back, BB
- Baartman, B
- Bertone, PF
- Bernstein, LA
- Campbell, CM
- Carpenter, MP
- Chiara, CJ
- Clark, RM
- Cromaz, M
- Doherty, DT
- Dracoulis, GD
- Esker, NE
- Fallon, P
- Gothe, OR
- Greene, JP
- Greenlees, PT
- Hartley, DJ
- Hauschild, K
- Hoffman, CR
- Hota, SS
- Janssens, RVF
- Khoo, TL
- Konki, J
- Kwarsick, JT
- Lauritsen, T
- Macchiavelli, AO
- Mudder, PR
- Nair, C
- Qiu, Y
- Rissanen, J
- Rogers, AM
- Ruotsalainen, P
- Savard, G
- Stolze, S
- Wiens, A
- Zhu, S
- et al.
© 2015 American Physical Society. © 2015 American Physical Society. Two isomers decaying by electromagnetic transitions with half-lives of 4.7(1.1) and 247(73)μs have been discovered in the heavy Rf254 nucleus. The observation of the shorter-lived isomer was made possible by a novel application of a digital data acquisition system. The isomers were interpreted as the Kπ=8-, ν2(7/2+[624],9/2-[734]) two-quasineutron and the Kπ=16+, 8-ν2(7/2+[624],9/2-[734])⊗ - 8-π2(7/2-[514],9/2+[624]) four-quasiparticle configurations, respectively. Surprisingly, the lifetime of the two-quasiparticle isomer is more than 4 orders of magnitude shorter than what has been observed for analogous isomers in the lighter N=150 isotones. The four-quasiparticle isomer is longer lived than the Rf254 ground state that decays exclusively by spontaneous fission with a half-life of 23.2(1.1)μs. The absence of sizable fission branches from either of the isomers implies unprecedented fission hindrance relative to the ground state.