Nuclear isomers: Recipes from the past and ingredients for the future

Abstract

“But you've no idea what a difference it makes, mixing it with other things” [1]. In this new age of radioactive beams for nuclear physics research, it is timely to reflect on the enduring role of nuclear isomers, that is, excited, metastable states of nuclei. Heroic experiments with tiny quantities of isomer targets point the way toward the wide vistas of isomer beams, and new possibilities confront our ingenuity at the interface between nuclear and atomic physics. It is the relatively long half-lives of isomers that lead to their special status. © 2007, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.