Newswire: 19 June 2013 - CERN - CERN's ISOLTRAP reveals new magic in the atomic nucleus

Geneva, 19 June 2013. The ISOLTRAP collaboration[1] has measured the mass of exotic calcium nuclei using a new instrument installed at the ISOLDE facility at CERN[2]. The measurements, published on 20 June in the journal Nature, clearly establish a new "magic number" related to the stability of this exotic species. The results cast light on how nuclei can be described in terms of the fundamental strong force.