Researchers observed a new nucleus, aluminum-20, for the first time.

Reporters have learned from the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that recently, researchers from the institute, along with partners from the Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Germany, Fudan University, and other domestic and international institutions, have made new progress in the study of exotic decays of atomic nuclei. For the first time in an experiment, they observed the new nucleus Aluminum-20 and found that it decays through the rare three-proton emission mode. The related research results were recently published in the academic journal "Physical Review Letters".