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Proton-Metal Reactions in Thin Films with Boltzmann Distribution Similar to Nuclear Astrophysics

Heinrich Hora, George H. Miley, Jak C. Kelly, Giovanna Salvaggi, Antonio Tate, Frederick Osman, Reynaldo Castillo

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 36 / Number 3 / November 1999 / Pages 331-336

Technical Paper / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST99-A114

The proton reactions in host metals like palladium, nickel, or titanium generate elements up to a proton number Z = 82 (lead), where the generation probability follows a kind of Boltzmann distribution. This is very similar to the standard abundance distribution of the elements in the universe for heavy elements. The analogy leads to a relation to the magic numbers of the nuclear shell model, to its alternative (more general) foundation on the Bagge series contrary to the spin model of Jensen and Goeppert-Mayer, and to new large magic numbers in agreement with Greiner et al.'s results on superheavy elements.