- Gates, JM;
- Pang, GK;
- Pore, JL;
- Gregorich, KE;
- Kwarsick, JT;
- Savard, G;
- Esker, NE;
- Covo, M Kireeff;
- Mogannam, MJ;
- Batchelder, JC;
- Bleuel, DL;
- Clark, RM;
- Crawford, HL;
- Fallon, P;
- Hubbard, KK;
- Hurst, AM;
- Kolaja, IT;
- Macchiavelli, AO;
- Morse, C;
- Orford, R;
- Phair, L;
- Stoyer, MA
An experiment was performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 88-in. Cyclotron to determine the mass number of a superheavy element. The measurement resulted in the observation of two α-decay chains, produced via the ^{243}Am(^{48}Ca,xn)^{291-x}Mc reaction, that were separated by mass-to-charge ratio (A/q) and identified by the combined BGS+FIONA apparatus. One event occurred at A/q=284 and was assigned to ^{284}Nh (Z=113), the α-decay daughter of ^{288}Mc (Z=115), while the second occurred at A/q=288 and was assigned to ^{288}Mc. This experiment represents the first direct measurements of the mass numbers of superheavy elements, confirming previous (indirect) mass-number assignments.