Discovery of the vanadium isotopes

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Abstract

Twenty-four vanadium isotopes have been observed so far and the discovery of these isotopes is discussed here. For each isotope a brief summary of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented.

Introduction

As the next paper of the series, the discovery of the vanadium isotopes is summarized here. Previously, the discovery of cerium [1], arsenic [2], gold [3], tungsten [4], and krypton [5] isotopes was discussed. Guidelines for assigning credit for discovery are (1) clear identification, either through decay-curves and relationships to other known isotopes, particle or γ-ray spectra, or unique mass and Z-identification, and (2) publication of the discovery in a refereed journal. The authors and year of the first publication, the laboratory where the isotopes were produced as well as the production and identification methods are discussed. When appropriate, references to conference proceedings, internal reports, and theses are included. When a discovery included a half-life measurement the measured value is compared to the currently adopted value taken from the NUBASE evaluation [8] which is based on the ENSDF database [9]. In cases where the reported half-life differed significantly from the adopted half-life (up to approximately a factor of 2), we searched the subsequent literature for indications that the measurement was erroneous. If that was not the case we credited the authors with the discovery in spite of the inaccurate half-life.

Section snippets

Discovery of 43–66V

Twenty-four vanadium isotopes from A = 43–66 have been discovered so far; these include two stable (including 50V with a half-life of 1.4 × 1017 years), seven proton-rich, and 15 neutron-rich isotopes. According to the HFB-14 model [10], 76V should be the last odd–odd particle stable neutron-rich nucleus, and the odd–even particle stable neutron-rich nuclei should continue through 83V. The proton dripline has been reached and no more long-lived isotopes are expected to exist because 42V has been

Summary

The discovery of the isotopes of vanadium has been cataloged and the methods of their discovery discussed. The discovery of 50V is unique because it was reported simultaneously by two independent groups. The half-life of 47V was first attributed to 49V while the half-life of 49V was first assigned to 47V. The first observations of 53V and 54V were reported in a conference proceeding with the first publication in refereed journals only four and 14 years later, respectively. In addition, 53V had

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. PHY06-06007 (NSCL) and PHY07-54541 (REU). M.H. was supported by NSF Grant PHY05-55445.

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