The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) approved the names of the new four elements of the periodic table: 113th, 115th, 117th and 118th. The latter is named after the Russian physicist, Academician Yuri Oganesyan. Scientists got "into the box" before: Mendeleev, Einstein, Bohr, Rutherford, the Curie couple... But only the second time in history this happened during the life of a scientist. The precedent happened in 1997, when Glenn Seaborg received such an honor. Yuri Oganesyan has long been tipped for the Nobel Prize. But, you see, getting your own cell in the periodic table is much cooler.

In the lower rows of the table you can easily find uranium, its atomic number is 92. All subsequent elements, starting from the 93rd, are the so-called transuranes. Some of them appeared about 10 billion years ago as a result of nuclear reactions inside stars. Traces of plutonium and neptunium have been found in the earth's crust. But most of the transuranium elements decayed long ago, and now one can only predict what they were, in order to then try to recreate them in the laboratory.

The first to do this in 1940 were American scientists Glenn Seaborg and Edwin Macmillan. Plutonium is born. Later, Seaborg's group synthesized americium, curium, berkelium... By that time, almost the whole world had joined the race for superheavy nuclei.

Yuri Oganesyan (b. 1933). MEPhI graduate, expert in the field of nuclear physics, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific director of the JINR Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Applied Nuclear Physics. He has honorary titles at universities and academies in Japan, France, Italy, Germany and other countries. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR, the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, Friendship of Peoples, "For Merit to the Fatherland", etc. Photo: wikipedia.org

In 1964, a new chemical element with atomic number 104 was first synthesized in the USSR, at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), which is located in Dubna, near Moscow. This element was later named "rutherfordium". Georgy Flerov, one of the founders of the institute, supervised the project. His name is also inscribed in the table: Flerovium, 114.

Yuri Oganesyan was a student of Flerov and one of those who synthesized rutherfordium, then dubnium and heavier elements. Thanks to the successes of Soviet scientists, Russia has become a leader in the transuranic race and has retained this status to this day.

The scientific team whose work led to the discovery sends their proposal to IUPAC. The Commission considers the arguments for and against, based on the following rules: "... newly discovered elements can be named: (a) by the name of a mythological character or concept (including an astronomical object), (b) by the name of a mineral or similar substance, (c) by the name of a locality or geographical area, (d) by the properties of an element, or (e) by the name of a scientist."

The names of the four new elements were assigned for a long time, almost a year. The date of the announcement of the decision was pushed back several times. The tension grew. Finally, on November 28, 2016, after a five-month deadline for receiving proposals and public objections, the commission found no reason to reject nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson and approved them.

By the way, the suffix "-on-" is not very typical for chemical elements. It was chosen for oganesson because the chemical properties of the new element are similar to inert gases - this similarity emphasizes the consonance with neon, argon, krypton, xenon.

The birth of a new element is an event of historical proportions. To date, the elements of the seventh period up to the 118th inclusive have been synthesized, and this is not the limit. Ahead is the 119th, 120th, 121st ... Isotopes of elements with atomic numbers over 100 often live no more than a thousandth of a second. And it seems that the heavier the core, the shorter its life. This rule is valid up to the 113th element inclusive.

In the 1960s, Georgy Flerov suggested that it should not be strictly observed as one goes deeper into the table. But how to prove it? The search for the so-called islands of stability has been one of the most important tasks of physics for more than 40 years. In 2006, a team of scientists led by Yuri Oganesyan confirmed their existence. The scientific world breathed a sigh of relief: it means that there is a point in looking for ever heavier nuclei.

The corridor of the legendary JINR Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. Photo: Daria Golubovich/Schrödinger's Cat

Yuri Tsolakovich, what are the islands of stability that have been talked about a lot lately?

Yuri Oganesyan: You know that the nuclei of atoms are made up of protons and neutrons. But only a strictly defined number of these "bricks" are connected with each other into a single body, which represents the nucleus of the atom. There are more combinations that "do not work". Therefore, in principle, our world is in a sea of ​​instability. Yes, there are nuclei that have remained since the formation of the solar system, they are stable. Hydrogen, for example. Areas with such cores will be called "continent". It gradually fades into a sea of ​​instability as we move towards heavier elements. But it turns out that if you go far from land, an island of stability appears, where long-lived nuclei are born. The island of stability is a discovery that has already been made, recognized, but the exact time of life of centenarians on this island is not yet predicted well enough.

How were the islands of stability discovered?

Yuri Oganesyan: We have been looking for them for a long time. When a task is set, it is important that there is a clear answer "yes" or "no". There are actually two reasons for the zero result: either you didn’t reach it, or what you are looking for is not there at all. We had "zero" until 2000. We thought that maybe the theorists are right when they paint their beautiful pictures, but we can’t reach them. In the 90s, we came to the conclusion that it is worth complicating the experiment. This was contrary to the realities of that time: new equipment was needed, but there were not enough funds. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 21st century, we were ready to try out a new approach - to irradiate plutonium with calcium-48.

Why is calcium-48, this particular isotope, so important to you?

Yuri Oganesyan: It has eight extra neutrons. And we knew that the island of stability is where there is an excess of neutrons. Therefore, the heavy isotope of plutonium-244 was irradiated with calcium-48. In this reaction, an isotope of the superheavy element 114, flerovium-289, was synthesized, which lives for 2.7 seconds. On the scale of nuclear transformations, this time is considered to be quite long and serves as proof that an island of stability exists. We swam to it, and as we moved deeper into the stability only grew.

A fragment of the ACCULINNA-2 separator, which is used to study the structure of light exotic nuclei. Photo: Daria Golubovich/Schrödinger's Cat

Why, in principle, was there confidence that there were islands of stability?

Yuri Oganesyan: Confidence appeared when it became clear that the nucleus has a structure ... Long ago, back in 1928, our great compatriot Georgy Gamov (Soviet and American theoretical physicist) suggested that nuclear matter looks like a drop of liquid. When this model began to be tested, it turned out that it describes the global properties of nuclei surprisingly well. But then our laboratory received a result that radically changed these ideas. We found out that in the normal state, the nucleus does not behave like a drop of liquid, is not an amorphous body, but has an internal structure. Without it, the core would exist for only 10-19 seconds. And the presence of structural properties of nuclear matter leads to the fact that the nucleus lives for seconds, hours, and we hope that it can live for days, and maybe even millions of years. This hope may be too bold, but we hope and look for transuranium elements in nature.

One of the most exciting questions: is there a limit to the diversity of chemical elements? Or are there an infinite number of them?

Yuri Oganesyan: The drip model predicted that there were no more than a hundred of them. From her point of view, there is a limit to the existence of new elements. Today, 118 of them have been discovered. How many more can there be?.. It is necessary to understand the distinctive properties of "island" nuclei in order to make a forecast for heavier ones. From the point of view of the microscopic theory, which takes into account the structure of the nucleus, our world does not end with the hundredth element entering the sea of ​​instability. When we talk about the limit of the existence of atomic nuclei, we must take this into account.

Is there an achievement that you consider the most important in life?

Yuri Oganesyan: I do what I'm really interested in. Sometimes I get very carried away. Sometimes it turns out something, and I'm glad that it turned out. That's life. This is not an episode. I do not belong to the category of people who dreamed of being scientists in childhood, at school, no. But I was just somehow good at mathematics and physics, and so I went to the university where I had to take these exams. Well, I passed. And in general, I believe that in life we ​​are all very much subject to chance. True, right? We take many steps in life in a completely random way. And then, when you become an adult, you are asked the question: "Why did you do this?". Well, I did and I did. This is my usual occupation with science.

"We can get one atom of the 118th element in a month"

Now JINR is building the world's first superheavy element factory based on the DRIBs-III (Dubna Radioactive Ion Beams) ion accelerator, the most powerful in its energy field. There they will synthesize superheavy elements of the eighth period (119, 120, 121) and produce radioactive materials for targets. Experiments will begin in late 2017 - early 2018. Andrei Popeko, from the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. G. N. Flerov JINR, told why all this is needed.

Andrei Georgievich, how are the properties of new elements predicted?

Andrew Popeko: The main property from which all the others follow is the mass of the nucleus. It is very difficult to predict it, but, based on the mass, it is already possible to assume how the nucleus will decay. There are different experimental patterns. You can study the kernel and, say, try to describe its properties. Knowing something about the mass, one can talk about the energy of the particles that the nucleus will emit, make predictions about its lifetime. This is quite cumbersome and not very accurate, but more or less reliable. But if the nucleus divides spontaneously, prediction becomes much more difficult and less accurate.

What can we say about the properties of the 118th?

Andrew Popeko: It lives for 0.07 seconds and emits alpha particles with an energy of 11.7 MeV. It's measured. In the future, it is possible to compare experimental data with theoretical ones and correct the model.

In one of the lectures, you said that the table might end at the 174th element. Why?

Andrew Popeko: It is assumed that further electrons will simply fall on the nucleus. The greater the charge of the nucleus, the more it attracts electrons. The nucleus is plus, the electrons are minus. At some point, the nucleus will attract electrons so strongly that they must fall on it. There will be a limit of elements.

Can such nuclei exist?

Andrew Popeko: Assuming that the 174th element exists, we believe that its core also exists. But is it? Uranus, element 92, lives for 4.5 billion years, while element 118 lives for less than a millisecond. Actually, earlier it was considered that the table comes to an end on an element which lifetime is negligibly small. Then it turned out that not everything is so simple if you move along the table. First, the lifetime of the element falls, then, for the next one, it increases slightly, then falls again.

Rolls with track membranes - a nanomaterial for purifying blood plasma in the treatment of severe infectious diseases, eliminating the effects of chemotherapy. These membranes were developed at the JINR Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions back in the 1970s. Photo: Daria Golubovich/Schrödinger's Cat

When it increases - is this the island of stability?

Andrew Popeko: This is an indication that he is. This is clearly visible on the graphs.

Then what is the island of stability itself?

Andrew Popeko: Some area in which there are nuclei of isotopes that have a longer lifetime compared to their neighbors.

Is this area yet to be found?

Andrew Popeko: So far, only the very edge has been hooked.

What will you be looking for in the superheavy element factory?

Andrew Popeko: Experiments on the synthesis of elements take a lot of time. On average, six months of continuous work. We can get one atom of the 118th element in a month. In addition, we work with highly radioactive materials, and our premises must meet special requirements. But when the laboratory was created, they did not exist yet. Now a separate building is being built in compliance with all radiation safety requirements - only for these experiments. The accelerator is designed specifically for the synthesis of transuraniums. We will, firstly, study in detail the properties of the 117th and 118th elements. Second, look for new isotopes. Thirdly, try to synthesize even heavier elements. You can get the 119th and 120th.

Are you planning to experiment with new target materials?

Andrew Popeko: We have already started working with titanium. They spent a total of 20 years on calcium - they received six new elements.

Unfortunately, there are not so many scientific fields where Russia occupies a leading position. How do we manage to win the fight for transurans?

Andrew Popeko: Actually, the leaders here have always been the United States and the Soviet Union. The fact is that plutonium was the main material for creating atomic weapons - it had to be obtained somehow. Then we thought: why not use other substances? From nuclear theory it follows that you need to take elements with an even number and an odd atomic weight. We tried curium-245 - did not fit. California-249 too. They began to study transuranium elements. It so happened that the Soviet Union and America were the first to deal with this issue. Then Germany - there was a discussion there in the 60s: is it worth getting involved in the game if the Russians and the Americans have already done everything? Theorists convinced that it is worth it. As a result, the Germans received six elements: from the 107th to the 112th. By the way, the method they chose was developed in the 70s by Yuri Oganesyan. And he, being the director of our laboratory, let the leading physicists go to help the Germans. Everyone was surprised: "How is it?" But science is science, there should be no competition. If there is an opportunity to gain new knowledge, it is necessary to participate.

Superconducting ECR-source - with the help of which beams of highly charged ions of xenon, iodine, krypton, argon are obtained. Photo: Daria Golubovich/Schrödinger's Cat

Did JINR choose another method?

Andrew Popeko: Yes. It turned out to be successful too. Somewhat later, the Japanese began to conduct similar experiments. And they synthesized the 113th. We received it almost a year early as a decay product of the 115th, but did not argue. God bless them, don't worry. This Japanese group trained with us - we know many of them personally, we are friends. And this is very good. In a sense, it is our students who received the 113th element. By the way, they also confirmed our results. There are few people who want to confirm other people's results.

This requires a certain amount of honesty.

Andrew Popeko: Well, yes. How else? In science, it's like this.

What is it like to study a phenomenon that will be truly understood by five hundred people all over the world?

Andrew Popeko: I like. I've been doing this all my life, 48 years.

Most of us find it incredibly difficult to understand what you do. The synthesis of transuranium elements is not a topic that is discussed over dinner with the family.

Andrew Popeko: We generate new knowledge and it will not be lost. If we can study the chemistry of individual atoms, then we have analytical methods of the highest sensitivity, which are certainly suitable for studying substances that pollute the environment. For the production of the rarest isotopes in radiomedicine. And who will understand the physics of elementary particles? Who will understand what the Higgs boson is?

Yes. Similar story.

Andrew Popeko: True, there are still more people who understand what the Higgs boson is than those who understand superheavy elements ... Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider give exceptionally important practical results. It was at the European Center for Nuclear Research that the Internet appeared.

The Internet is a favorite example of physicists.

Andrew Popeko: What about superconductivity, electronics, detectors, new materials, tomography methods? These are all side effects of high energy physics. New knowledge will never be lost.

Gods and Heroes. Who were the chemical elements named after?

Vanadium, V(1801). Vanadis is the Scandinavian goddess of love, beauty, fertility and war (how does she do all this?). Lady of the Valkyries. She is Freya, Gefna, Hearn, Mardell, Sur, Valfreya. This name is given to the element because it forms multi-colored and very beautiful compounds, and the goddess seems to be very beautiful too.

Niobium, Nb(1801). It was originally called Colombia in honor of the country where the first sample of a mineral containing this element was brought from. But then tantalum was discovered, which in almost all chemical properties coincided with columbia. As a result, it was decided to name the element after Niobe, the daughter of the Greek king Tantalus.

Palladium, Pd(1802). In honor of the asteroid Pallas discovered in the same year, the name of which also goes back to the myths of Ancient Greece.

Cadmium, CD(1817). Initially, this element was mined from zinc ore, the Greek name of which is directly related to the hero Cadmus. This character lived a bright and eventful life: he defeated the dragon, married Harmonia, founded Thebes.

Promethium, Pm(1945). Yes, this is the same Prometheus who gave fire to people, after which he had serious problems with the divine authorities. And with cookies.

Samaria, Sm(1878). No, this is not entirely in honor of the city of Samara. The element was isolated from the mineral samarskite, which was provided to European scientists by a mining engineer from Russia, Vasily Samarsky-Bykhovets (1803-1870). This can be considered the first entry of our country into the periodic table (if you do not take into account its name, of course).

Gadolinium, Gd(1880. Named after Johan Gadolin (1760-1852), Finnish chemist and physicist who discovered the element yttrium.

Tantalum, Ta(1802). The Greek king Tantalus offended the gods (there are different versions of what exactly), for which he was tortured in every possible way in the underworld. Scientists suffered about the same when trying to get pure tantalum. It took over a hundred years.

Thorium, Th(1828). The discoverer was the Swedish chemist Jöns Berzelius, who gave the element a name in honor of the harsh Scandinavian god Thor.

Curium, Cm(1944). The only element named after two people - the Nobel laureates spouses Pierre (1859-1906) and Marie (1867-1934) Curie.

Einsteinium, Es(1952). Everything is clear here: Einstein, the great scientist. True, he has never been involved in the synthesis of new elements.

Fermi, Fm(1952). Named in honor of Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), an Italian-American scientist who made a great contribution to the development of elementary particle physics, the creator of the first nuclear reactor.

Mendelevium, Md(1955). This is in honor of our Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907). It is only strange that the author of the periodic law did not immediately get into the table.

Nobelium, No(1957). The name of this element has long been the subject of controversy. The priority in its discovery belongs to scientists from Dubna, who named it joliot in honor of another member of the Curie family - the son-in-law of Pierre and Marie Frederic Joliot-Curie (also a Nobel laureate). At the same time, a group of physicists working in Sweden proposed to perpetuate the memory of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). For quite a long time, in the Soviet version of the periodic table, the 102nd was listed as joliot, and in the American and European - as nobel. But in the end, IUPAC, recognizing the Soviet priority, left the Western version.

Lawrence, Lr(1961). Roughly the same story as with Nobel. Scientists from JINR proposed to name the element rutherfordium in honor of the "father of nuclear physics" Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), the Americans - lawrencium in honor of the inventor of the cyclotron, physicist Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958). The American application won, and element 104 became rutherfordium.

Rutherfordium, Rf(1964). In the USSR, it was called kurchatovium in honor of the Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov. The final name was approved by IUPAC only in 1997.

Seaborgium, Sg(1974). The first and only case until 2016 when a chemical element was given the name of a living scientist. This was an exception to the rule, but Glenn Seaborg's contribution to the synthesis of new elements was too great (about a dozen cells in the periodic table).

Bory, Bh(1976). There was also a discussion about the name and priority of the opening. In 1992, Soviet and German scientists agreed to name the element Nielsborium in honor of the Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962). IUPAC approved the abbreviated name - Borium. This decision cannot be called humane in relation to schoolchildren: they have to remember that boron and bohrium are completely different elements.

Meitnerium, Mt(1982). Named after Lise Meitner (1878-1968), physicist and radiochemist who worked in Austria, Sweden and the United States. By the way, Meitner was one of the few major scientists who refused to participate in the Manhattan Project. Being a staunch pacifist, she declared: "I will not make a bomb!".

X-ray, Rg(1994). The discoverer of the famous rays, the first ever Nobel laureate in physics Wilhelm Roentgen (1845-1923) is immortalized in this cell. The element was synthesized by German scientists, however, the research team also included representatives of Dubna, including Andrey Popeko.

Copernicius, Cn(1996 .). In honor of the great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). How he ended up on a par with physicists of the 19th-20th centuries is not entirely clear. And it’s completely incomprehensible how to call the element in Russian: Copernicus or Copernicus? Both options are considered acceptable.

Flerovium, Fl(1998). By approving this name, the international community of chemists has demonstrated that it appreciates the contribution of Russian physicists to the synthesis of new elements. Georgy Flerov (1913-1990) headed the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at JINR, where many transuranium elements were synthesized (in particular, from 102 to 110). The achievements of JINR are also immortalized in the names of the 105th element ( dubnium), 115th ( Muscovite- Dubna is located in the Moscow region) and 118th ( oganesson).

Ohaneson, Og(2002). Initially, the synthesis of the 118th element was announced by the Americans in 1999. And they suggested naming it Giorsium in honor of the physicist Albert Ghiorso. But their experiment turned out to be wrong. The discovery priority was given to scientists from Dubna. In the summer of 2016, IUPAC recommended that the element be named oganesson in honor of Yuri Oganesyan.

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Biography

In 1956 - graduated from MEPhI. Director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. G.N. Flerov Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna). Chairman of the Scientific Council for Applied Nuclear Physics.

Main directions of scientific activity

Nuclear physics and accelerator physics, synthesis and study of the properties of new elements.

Scientific discoveries and achievements

Together with acad. G.N. Flerov, Yu.Ts. Oganesyan is the creator in our country of the scientific, technical and experimental base of a new scientific direction - heavy ion physics. Under his scientific guidance and with direct participation at JINR, a generation of heavy ion accelerators (5 installations) with record parameters was created. The latest project is a unique accelerator complex for producing beams of radioactive nuclei, which was launched in 2002.

Yu.Ts. Oganesyan carried out fundamental studies of the mechanism of interaction of complex nuclei. He discovered and studied the influence of the nuclear structure on the collective motion of nuclei in the processes of fusion and fission, he is the author of the discovery of a new class of nuclear reactions - cold fusion of massive nuclei (1974), widely used to this day in various laboratories around the world for the synthesis of new elements up to Z = 112.

Yu.Ts. Oganesyan owns the fundamental work on the synthesis of new elements on heavy ion beams. In the 60-70s. he and his collaborators were the first to conduct experiments on the synthesis of elements with Z = 104 - 108. To study extremely heavy nuclei, Yu.Ts. Oganesyan chose the fusion reactions of neutron-enriched isotopes of actinides with accelerated calcium-48 ions. In 1999 - 2003 in these reactions, atoms with Z = 111 - 116 and 118 were synthesized for the first time, the decay properties of which prove the existence of "islands of stability" in the region of superheavy elements.

The group of Yuri Tsolakovich Oganesyan at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, which has been synthesizing new substances with fantastic properties for many years, announced the synthesis of an element with serial number 117 together with American colleagues from the national laboratories in Oak Ridge and Livermore of Vanderbilt University. This experiment became sensational in the world of science, since in nature there are no elements with atomic numbers greater than 92, i.e. heavier than uranium. Note that the 118th appeared before the 117th. This was due to the fact that the synthesis of 117 required a specific substance that only the Americans could develop. They worked it out at their high-precision reactor, delivered it to Dubna, where they prepared a target from it, and within six months the 117th element was synthesized in Dubna. I must say that Yuri Oganesyan is also a co-author of the discoveries by foreign scientists of a number of heavy elements: 104 (rutherfordium), 105 (Dubnium), 106 (Siborium), 107 (Borium), 117 (Ununseptium).

In 2002, in the world scientific community, it was Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yu. Oganesyan who was considered the most realistic contender for the Nobel Prize. However, a scandal broke out in the USA with the falsification of the discovery of superheavy elements by a team of physicists who competed with the group of Yu. Oganesyan. The Americans, whose voice is decisive in awarding the Nobel Prize, have made every effort to prevent Russia from getting the prize.

Compositions

Dedicated to nuclear reactions, heavy ion accelerators, synthesis and research of new heavy chemical elements, among them:

• Multipurpose isochronous cyclotron U-250 / R. Ts. Oganesyan, E. Bakevich, I. B. Enchevich, 16 p. 21 cm, Dubna JINR 1979
• Neutron-rich nuclei of the lightest elements / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, Yu. E. Peniontkevich, R. Kalpakchieva, 12 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1989
• Isomeric targets and beams / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, S. A. Karamyan, 26 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1994
• Synthesis and radioactive properties of the heaviest nuclei / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, 14 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1996
• Synthesis and properties of superheavy nuclei / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, 10 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1994
• JINR program on heavy ion physics at low and medium energies / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, Yu. E. Penionzhkevich, 18 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1994
• Work plan of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions for 1995: Dokl. to the 76th session. scientific Council of JINR (June 7-9, 1994) / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, 12 p. ill. 21 cm, Dubna JINR 1994
• On the issue of a gamma laser at nuclear levels / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, S. A. Karamyan, 11 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1994
• Investigation of the structure of nuclei using laser radiation / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, Yu. P. Gangrsky, B. N. Markov, 8 p. ill. 21 cm, Dubna JINR 1982
• Report on research activities in 1996: Lab. nuclei. reactions to them. Flerova: Dokl. for the 81st session. scientific Council of JINR, 16-17 Jan. 1997 / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, 9 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1996
• Excitation and discharge of isomers in nuclear reactions / Yu. Ts. Oganesyan, S. A. Karamyan, 12 p. ill. 22 cm, Dubna JINR 1996
• Yu.Ts. Oganesyan. Reactions for the fusion of heavy nuclei: a brief summary and prospects. Nuclear physics. T.69, No.6. with. 961 (2006).
• Yu. Oganessian. Heaviest nuclei from 48Ca-induced reactions. J. of Physics G, v.34, p.R165 (2007).
• Yu. Oganessian et al. Synthesis of Elements 115 and 113 in the reaction 243Am+48Ca. Physical Review C, v.72, p.034611 (2005).
• Yu. Oganessian et al. Synthesis of the isotopes of elements 118 and 116 in the 249Cf and 245Cm +48Ca fusion reactions. Physical Review C, v.74, p. 044602, (2006).
• Yu. Oganessian. Synthesis and decay properties of superheavy elements. J. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, v.78, p. 889 (2006).
• Yu. Oganessian. Sizing up the heavyweights. NATURE, v. 413, p. 122 (2001).

Achievements

• Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1990)
• full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (corresponding member 1991)
• Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1970)
• professor (1980)
• foreign member of NAS RA

Awards, prizes

• USSR State Prize (1975)
• State Prize of the Russian Federation (2010)
• Lenin Komsomol Prize
• prize to them. I.V. Kurchatov
• G.N. Flerova (JINR 1993)
• A. von Humboldt Prize (Germany 1995)
• Lise Meitner Prize (European Physical Society 2000)
• Laureate of the Main Prize for 2001 MAIK Nauka/Interperiodika (RAS. 2002)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor
• Order of the Badge of Honor
• Order of Friendship of Peoples
• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III degree
• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV degree
• Order of Friendship (Mongolia)
• Order of Friendship II degree (DPRK)
• Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
• medal "In memory of the 850th anniversary of Moscow"
• Medal "For Valiant Labor. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin"
• Gold Medal No. 1 (State Committee for Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia - for outstanding achievements)

Membership in scientific societies and organizations

• foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1995)
• Honorary Doctor of the University Goethe (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2002)
• honorary doctorate from the University of Messina (Italy, 2002)
• head of the branch of the MEPhI department
• Chairman of the Dissertation Council, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Applied Nuclear Physics
• Honorary Doctor of Yerevan State University

• "J.Phys.G"
• "Nuclear Physics News International"
• Il Nuovo Cimente
• "Particles and Nuclei"
• "Particle Accelerators"
• member of the editorial board of the journal "Physics of elementary particles and the atomic nucleus"

• GANIL (France)
• RIKEN (Japan)

Miscellaneous

Images

Bibliography

• Great Russian Biographical Encyclopedia.(3 CD)

— Boris Nikolaevich, how are new elements assigned names? Why does the news report several times that the elements are named, and then everything changes or is postponed?

- In fact, this is the cost of the media. The process is always the same: first, the names are discussed in the discovering institutions, then the authors jointly declare the proposed options. In this case, it happened in December last year. Then the names are considered by IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC - approx. "Attic"), and now they just published them on their own behalf, presented them to the public. Now there will be a certain waiting period when everyone can express their views or objections: perhaps the name does not sound good in one of the languages, or a similar term is already present in science. If such objections are not received within six months, IUPAC approves the title. We expect approval in the autumn, then we will have a big holiday in Dubna, California, and Japan.

- How did the names "Muscovite" and "Oganeson" appear?

- With Muscovy, the main idea was to perpetuate the land of Moscow in the periodic table. This does not mean Moscow or the Moscow region, it is, as it were, Muscovy in the ancient sense of the word. And as for the name “oganesson”, in our laboratory there was not only a tense, but an emotional discussion. We all have great respect for our scientific leader Yuri Tsolakovich Oganesyan, his contribution to the synthesis of superheavy elements is recognized all over the world. And he, as a modest person, said that not only did he not support such a name, but he did not want to participate in the discussion. Therefore, during this meeting, he left the hall. The remaining authors unanimously decided to name the element in honor of Oganesyan. This element had to necessarily end with “-on”, because according to the rules of the name, it falls into a period where such an ending should be. And so it turned out "oganesson". We thought that there would be difficulties with our American colleagues, who could offer their own name, but they immediately supported this initiative. Moreover, they said that if we had not suggested this name, they would have done it themselves.

Electronic configurations of element 118, ununoctium and element 113, ununtrium. IUPAC suggested calling them oganesson and nihonium. Image: Pumbaa/Wikipedia

- But what about the 113th element?

“This is an old debate. Our colleagues discovered the 113th element in a direct reaction, and we discovered it as a decay product of the 115th element. The international commission decided to give primacy to them.

- How do they "meet" the new names of the elements?

- We have an inauguration in Moscow. As last time, when in 2012 the 114th element was officially named - flerovium, the 116th element - livermorium. It was the same collaboration that did it, the same physicists. There was a large meeting at the House of Scientists, at the Academy of Sciences, in Moscow. Leading scientists came from all over the world, and commemorative medals were issued on this occasion.

— How does the synthesis of superheavy elements take place?

— In order to obtain superheavy nuclei, we irradiate a target from a specially selected heavy element with calcium-48 ions. This is a very rare isotope, it is only two tenths of a percent in natural calcium, but it is stable, and there are a lot of “excess” neutrons in it. For comparison: the mass of the “ordinary” calcium isotope is 40. Why is this needed? Stability - of course, it is much more difficult to control the reaction with a radioactive isotope that decays to give other elements. We accelerate calcium-48 in the accelerator and send it to the target where the nuclear reaction takes place. Initially, "hot" nuclei are formed, which need to emit "extra" neutrons in order to stabilize. That's why you need an "excess" isotope.

The fusion chain looks like this: an accelerator with calcium-48, irradiation of the target, then a separator - something like a sieve that separates objects of interest to us from the flow of particles formed during the bombardment of the target: the synthesis of superheavy elements is a rare phenomenon, mostly other , background processes. And finally, a detector that registers the formed superheavy nuclei.

— How did this work start in Dubna?

— The initiative came from the first head of our laboratory, Georgy Nikolaevich Flerov. In 1961, the U-300, the world's first specialized accelerator for heavy ions, was built and launched. They tried to synthesize new elements on it, and very successfully: one of the elements was named after Dubna - “dubniy”. It was mined on the U-300.

U-300 cyclotron at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 1976. Photo: Yury Tumanov / ITAR-TASS

— Are you in charge of this accelerator complex?

- Now yes. And at that moment, Yuri Tsolakovich Oganesyan was the chief engineer of the laboratory. It was he who supervised the construction of the U-300 cyclotron. The accelerator was developed at NIIEFA im. D.V. Efremov in Leningrad (Research Institute of Electrophysical Equipment). At that time it was the only specialized institute that could produce accelerators. The accelerator itself weighs 2000 tons, bringing it from Leningrad to Dubna was a separate engineering task.

- And how did the U-400 appear?

- He started in 1978. But this was preceded by a rather long history. The work of the U-300 was recognized as successful, but the intensity that it gave was very small by today's standards. It was impossible to get heavier elements on it. When this was understood, they set the task of making new, specialized accelerators for accelerating calcium-48. When we started these experiments, all the calcium that was in the Soviet Union was transferred to our laboratory for this experiment. And now we use a domestically produced isotope. True, at that time we used it without any enrichment. Now we use calcium with 60% enrichment - our accelerators today allow us to obtain a good beam intensity even with such an enrichment.

Yuri Oganesyan (left), Georgy Flerov (right) and Robert Wilson inspecting the U-400 booster. Photo: Yury Tumanov / TASS archive

When U-400 was built, calcium-48 was accelerated in it and the first experiments were made, it became clear that we could not synthesize a new element in this way. Because the intensity was still low, and the consumption of calcium-48 was very high. That is, even if we used up the entire supply, it is not a fact that we received at least one core of a superheavy element. A very radical task was set, at that time incomprehensible. It was necessary to increase the intensity by more than 10 times. And the working accelerator was stopped and dismantled. At that moment he was the best in the world for these purposes. Another approach was proposed, with an additional external source, a new injection system. And this allowed immediately, at the first start, to increase the intensity by 20 times. It became clear that the experiment could be done. Then the intensity was doubled again. This happened in 1995. In this configuration, we have been working, it turns out, for 20 years, 5-6 thousand hours a year for these particles. Many elements have already been synthesized; an “island of stability” with the center, the 114th element, was just discovered on it. Here is such a story.

Robert Wilson and Yuri Oganesyan (right) on the U-400 booster. Photo: Yury Tumanov / TASS archive

“Now we also want to reconstruct it. To start this work, we started another project: we are building a completely different accelerator, according to a new scheme, it is called DC-280. On it, we want to increase the beam intensity by another 10 times. Because the task that stood before it was to synthesize new elements. And now we want to widely study their properties, including chemical ones. And for this one event (the birth of the nucleus of a superheavy element - approx. "Attic") per week or per month is not enough. To study chemistry, you need to have a lot of them. Installations are being built at the new accelerator that can synthesize and use the calcium-48 beam. The project is called the "factory of superheavy elements." This fall, we start assembling a new machine. There is already a schedule approved by our management. The building for the factory is almost completed.

If everything goes well, in a year we hope to fully assemble and launch all systems, including engineering, which provide cooling, ventilation, electricity, and control. We will start the launch of this machine in two years. Not fast, but still a lot of work!

Born April 14, 1933 in Rostov-on-Don in an Armenian family. Father, Tsolak Hovhannisyan, worked as the chief heating engineer of the city. In the late 1930s the family moved to Yerevan, where his father was sent on a business trip to build a synthetic rubber plant.

Education, degrees
Initially, Yuri Oganesyan wanted to become an architect and applied to the Moscow Architectural Institute, successfully passing the competition in drawing and painting. He also passed the entrance exams to the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (now the National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI"), where he eventually stayed to study. Graduated from MEPhI in 1956.

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1970). Candidate's thesis, which was defended at the Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov, was devoted to "γ-radiation of high-spin nuclei in reactions with heavy ions." The topic of his doctoral dissertation is "Fission of excited nuclei and the possibility of synthesizing new isotopes", Oganesyan defended it at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Dubna, Moscow region).
In 1980, Yuri Oganesyan was awarded the academic title of professor. In 1990 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 2003 - an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

Activity
After graduating from MEPhI, he worked at the Institute of Atomic Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the NRC "Kurchatov Institute", Moscow).
In 1958, he moved to the position of junior researcher at the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (FLNR) of JINR, where he began working under the leadership of the founding director of the laboratory, nuclear physicist Georgy Flerov. Subsequently, he was the head of the sector and department, deputy director of FLNR JINR.
In 1989-1996 - Director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. G. N. Flerova of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. From 1997 to present in. - Scientific Supervisor of FLNR JINR.
Since 2003, from the moment of formation, he has been the head of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the State University "Dubna" (the base department of FLNR JINR).
Member of the Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (section of nuclear physics). He heads the Scientific Council on Applied Nuclear Physics and the Scientific Council "Relativistic Nuclear Physics and Heavy Ion Physics" of the Academy of Sciences. Member of the Council of Elders of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2018).
Foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1995), the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (2006), the Polish Academy of Knowledge in Krakow (2017). Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry of Great Britain (2018). Professor at the University of Paris (France) and the University of Konan in Kobe (Japan), Honorary Professor of MEPhI, Frankfurt University. Goethe (Germany, 2002) and the University of Messina (Italy, 2002). Honorary Doctor of Yerevan State University.
Member of the editorial board and editorial boards of the scientific journals "Nuclear Physics" (Moscow), "Physics of elementary particles and the atomic nucleus" (JINR, Dubna), as well as a number of foreign academic publications.
Contribution to science
Yuri Oganesyan is a specialist in the field of experimental physics of the atomic nucleus, research on nuclear reactions, synthesis and research on the properties of new elements of the periodic table, physics and technology of charged particle accelerators, and the use of accelerated heavy ions in nanotechnologies. He is one of the founders of a new scientific direction - heavy ion physics (together with Flerov). The author of the discovery of a new class of nuclear reactions - cold fusion of massive nuclei (1974), widely used at present in various laboratories around the world for the synthesis of new elements. He discovered the reactions of synthesis of superheavy elements (1975-1978). Participated in the work on the synthesis of 104, 105 and 106 elements of the periodic table. Under the leadership of Oganesyan in the 2000s. New chemical elements were discovered at JINR - from 113 to 118 inclusive. As a result of these discoveries, a region of stability for superheavy nuclei was discovered.
November 28, 2016 The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named the 118th element of the periodic table oganesson (symbol - Og) - in honor of Yuri Oganesyan. He became the second scientist, after the American chemist Glenn Seaborg, whose name a chemical element was named during his lifetime.
Author and co-author of more than 460 scientific articles. Among them - "Some methods of acceleration of heavy nuclei" (1969), "Prospects for research using heavy ions and the development of accelerators" (1979), "Synthesis and properties of superheavy nuclei" (1994), "Synthesis and radioactive properties of the heaviest nuclei" ( 1996), "The First Atoms of the Island of Stability of Superheavy Elements" (1999), "The Path to the 'Islands of Stability' of Superheavy Elements" (2000), "Fusion Reactions of Heavy Nuclei: Brief Summary and Prospects" (2006), etc.

Awards
Laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize, the State Prize of the USSR (1975) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology (for 2010 "for the discovery of a new field of stability of superheavy elements", together with physicist Mikhail Itkis). He was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, "Badge of Honor", Friendship of Peoples (1993), Honor (2009), "For Merit to the Fatherland" II (2017), III (2003) and IV (1999) degrees.
Among foreign awards: the Order of Friendship (Mongolia), Friendship II degree (DPRK), Honor (Armenia; 2016), Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

The contribution of the scientist was awarded a gold medal. IV Kurchatov Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1989) and a large gold medal. M.V. Lomonosov RAS (2017), the gold medal of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (2008), as well as the prizes to them. G. N. Flerova (JINR; 1993), im. Alexander von Humboldt (Germany; 1995), im. Lise Meitner (European Physical Society; 2000) and others.
Yuri Oganesyan is an honorary citizen of Dubna. He heads the federation of water skiing of the city.

He was married to the famous violinist, teacher of the Children's Music School in Dubna, Irina Levonovna Oganesyan (1932-2010). After her death, Yuri Oganesyan, with the support of the government of the Moscow region, established in 2011 the competition of violinists and cellists named after. I. Oganesyan (later it became All-Russian).

Born April 14, 1933 in Rostov-on-Don
Author of the discovery of a new class of nuclear reactions
Co-author of the discovery of heavy elements of the periodic table
Scientific Supervisor of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. G. N. Flerova
Head of the Department of Nuclear Physics, University "Dubna"
Professor at the University of Paris and Konan University (Kobe, Japan)
Foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia
Honorary Doctorate from the University of Frankfurt Goethe
Honorary Doctor of the University of Messina
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences
In honor of Oganesyan, the chemical element oganeson of the periodic table of Mendeleev is named
Specialist in the field of experimental nuclear physics

The formula for becoming a good specialist is simple: do not overload yourself with science alone and expand your intellectual field - visit theaters and cinemas, listen to good music, be interested in exhibitions and not lose your bearings in life. Yuri Oganesyan

One of the most significant events in the history of Russian science was the assignment in 2016 to the new, 118th chemical element, the name Oganesson, in honor of Yuri Oganesyan, scientific director of the G. N. Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna . Oganesyan became the first Russian scientist (and the second in the world, after Glenn Seaborg), whose name was given to a chemical element during his lifetime.

Yuri Oganesyan was born on April 4, 1933 in Rostov-on-Don, in the family of Tsolak Oganesyan. At the age of 17, he moved to Moscow to enter the Moscow Architectural Institute (MARCHI), but eventually passed the exams at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI).

After graduating from high school, Yuri Oganesyan enters the Institute of Atomic Energy. Having worked there for two years, our compatriot made a huge independent contribution not only to the implementation of original physical ideas, but also to the development of an experimental basis for accelerators.

In 1958, Oganesyan entered the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (now named after G. N. Flerov) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, where he works to this day. Being the closest student of one of the founding fathers of the laboratory, Georgy Flerov, Yuri Oganesyan conducts fundamental research on the mechanism of interaction of complex nuclei. He discovered and studied the influence of the nuclear structure on the collective motion of nuclei in the processes of fusion and fission.

In the 1960s and 70s, Oganesyan, together with his colleagues, for the first time in the history of nuclear research, conducted experiments on the synthesis of elements with Z = 104-108. For studies of extremely heavy nuclei, Yuri Oganesyan chose the fusion reactions of neutron-enriched isotopes of actinides with accelerated calcium-48 ions. In these reactions in 1999–2010, atoms with Z equal were synthesized for the first time: 113 (2004), 114 (1998), 115 (2004), 116 (2000), 117 (2010) , 118 (2002), whose decay properties, namely, a significant increase in the lifetime (half-life), prove the existence of "islands of stability" in the region of superheavy elements.

Working tirelessly and making one discovery after another, our outstanding compatriot becomes a co-author of the discovery of the heavy elements of the periodic table of D. I. Mendeleev: the 104th element (rutherfordium), the 105th element (dubnium), the 106th element (seaborgium), 107th element (borium), the syntheses of which were recognized as scientific discoveries and entered in the State Register of Discoveries of the USSR.

In 2002, Oganesyan, together with Russian and American colleagues, synthesized the nuclei of a new element. The results of these experiments were published in 2006. The element completes the seventh period of the periodic table, although at the time of its discovery, the previous, 117th cell of the table, tennessee, was still unfilled.

Teams of scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna (Russia) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA), who participated in the discovery of a new element, proposed the name oganesson and the symbol Og, in honor of Yuri Oganesyan. On November 28, 2016, IUPAC approved the name "oganesson" for the 118th element.

Yuri Oganesyan continues to lecture and speak to young scientists around the world. As a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, he often visits his historical homeland, shares his scientific experience and surprises his compatriots with his knowledge of the perfection of the Armenian literary language.

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