by Walter Greiner (Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt) & Raj K Gupta (Panjab University, India)

This book reviews recent developments in the field of superheavy elements and the related phenomena of fission, cluster radioactivity, and drip line physics. Both the experimental and theoretical aspects are dealt with in detail. For the production of new elements in the laboratory, the process of cold compound nucleus formation is found to be most favorable both theoretically and experimentally. However, experimentally, hot fusion of nuclei has also been used. Both the physical and chemical methods of synthesizing new elements are discussed. The theoretical approaches considered here are those of the quantum-mechanical fragmentation theory, the self-consistent Hartree–Fock theory, and the relativistic mean field theory. Fission, a process inverse to the fusion of two nuclei, is also observed to be most favourably a cold phenomenon. Other important results are bi-modal fission and high n-multiplicity fission, which leads to the hyperdeformed scission mode. Cluster radioactivity is discussed both as a heavy cluster emission process and as super-asymmetric fission. The theory as well as the present experimental status are reviewed. Physics at drip lines is interesting not only for their structural properties but also for their use in the fusion of two nuclei; both aspects are discussed.

• New Developments in the Study of Superheavy Elements:
  • Discovery of the Heaviest Elements (G Münzenberg & S Hofmann)
  • Chemical Properties of the Transactinide Elements (J V Kratz)
  • Two-centre Shell Model in Cold Synthesis of Superheavy Elements (R K Gupta & W Greiner)
• New Developments in Fission Physics:
  • Cold Fission (H-G Clerc)
  • High Neutron Multiplicity and Cold Binary and Ternary Spontaneous Fission of ²⁵²Cf (A V Ramayya et al.)
  • Quantum Mechanical Fragmentation Theory for Cold Distribution of Masses and Charges in Fissioning Nuclei and Nuclei Formed in Heavy Ion Reactions (R K Gupta & W Greiner)
• New Cluster Radioactivity and the Super-asymmetric Fission:
  • Measurements on Cluster Radioactivity — Present Experimental Status (R Bonetti & A Guglielmetti)
  • Numerical and Analytical Super-asymmetric Fission Model for Exotic Cluster Decays (D N Poenaru & W Greiner)
  • Collective Description of Exotic Cluster Decays and Shell Structure Effects of Parent/Daughter Nuclei (R K Gupta)
• Extensions in New Directions: Nuclear Astrophysics, Physics of Nuclei Near Drip-lines and Strange Matter:
  • Nuclear Astrophysics at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century (R N Boyd)
  • Two- and Three-Body Properties of Halo Nuclei (I J Thompson & J S Vaagen)
  • Neutron Drip-line Nuclei: Their Halo Structure, Synthesis, and Decay via Cluster Emissions (R K Gupta et al.)
  • and other papers