Re: has anomalous internal structure been found recently in iron nuclei ?

Mark,

It's difficult to be sure exactly what your question is about, since you gave very few specifics to work with. After some unsuccessful searches on the web and through some general science journals (Scientific American, etc...) I turned to some online preprint databases and found a paper at this site:

Decay of neutron-rich Mn nuclides and deformation of heavy Fe isotopes

This paper, submitted last December, describes some studies of heavy manganese (Mn) isotopes decaying to iron (Fe). The data seems to suggest, among other things, that heavy iron nuclei (Fe-64, Fe66) are more deformed than previously anticipated; that is to say, they are not perfectly sperical, but have football-shaped tendencies.

This subject is quite a way out of my own field, but I found this article at the AIP Physics News Preview site:

Escape from a Nuclear Football:
Physicists Measure Proton Radioactivity in Highly Deformed Nuclei

This article focuses on similar studies of much heavier nuclei, but is a good introduction to the basic subject matter.

I hope this was what you were looking for. If not, please try to include more information on where you found the article you read. It would help us tremendously.

Regards,
Sam Silverstein