Biography:Amnon Marinov

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Short description: Israeli nuclear physicist (1930–2011)
Amnon Marinov

Amnon Marinov (Hebrew: אמנון מרינוב; 1930 – 2011) was an Israeli physicist. He undertook research into nuclear structures, nuclear reactions, superheavy elements and long-lived nuclear isomers.

Claimed discovery of unbibium

On April 24, 2008, a group led by Marinov at Hebrew University of Jerusalem claimed to have found single atoms of unbibium-292 in natural thorium deposits at an abundance of 10−11 to 10−12 relative to thorium.[1] This was the first time in sixty-nine years that a new element had been claimed to be discovered in nature, after Marguerite Perey's 1939 discovery of francium.[lower-alpha 1] The claim of Marinov et al. was criticized by a part of the scientific community, and Marinov said he submitted the article to the journals Nature and Nature Physics but both turned it down without sending it for peer review.[2] The unbibium-292 atoms were claimed to be superdeformed or hyperdeformed nuclear isomers, with a half-life of at least 108 years.[3]

A criticism of the technique, previously used in purportedly identifying lighter thorium isotopes by mass spectrometry,[4] was published in Physical Review C in 2008.[5] A rebuttal by the Marinov group was published in Physical Review C after the published comment.[6]

A repeat of the thorium experiment using the superior method of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) failed to confirm the results, despite a 100-fold better sensitivity.[7] This result throws considerable doubt on the results of the Marinov collaboration with regards to their claims of long-lived isotopes of thorium,[4] roentgenium[8] and unbibium.[1] It is still possible that traces of unbibium might exist in some thorium samples, though given current understanding of superheavy elements, this is very unlikely.[3]

Family

Amnon Marinov lived in Jerusalem, Israel with his wife Rachel; they have four children and six grandchildren. His father, Haim Marinov (1904–2001), was the deputy mayor of Jerusalem from 1964 until 1973. His father-in-law, Ya'akov Maimon (1902–1977), was the inventor of Hebrew stenography and received the Israel Prize in 1976 for his lifelong voluntary work teaching Hebrew to new immigrants all over the country.[9] Amnon Marinov died on December 7, 2011.

Notes

  1. ↑ Four more elements were discovered after 1939 through synthesis, but were later found to also occur naturally: these were promethium, astatine, neptunium, and plutonium, all of which had been found by 1945.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Marinov, A.; Rodushkin, I.; Kolb, D.; Pape, A.; Kashiv, Y.; Brandt, R.; Gentry, R. V.; Miller, H. W. (2010). "Evidence for a long-lived superheavy nucleus with atomic mass number A=292 and atomic number Z=~122 in natural Th". International Journal of Modern Physics E 19 (1): 131–140. doi:10.1142/S0218301310014662. Bibcode: 2010IJMPE..19..131M. 
  2. ↑ Royal Society of Chemistry, "Heaviest element claim criticised ", Chemical World.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Emsley, John (2011). Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements (New ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 588. ISBN 978-0-19-960563-7. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Marinov, A.; Rodushkin, I.; Kashiv, Y.; Halicz, L.; Segal, I.; Pape, A.; Gentry, R. V.; Miller, H. W. et al. (2007). "Existence of long-lived isomeric states in naturally-occurring neutron-deficient Th isotopes". Phys. Rev. C 76 (2): 021303(R). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.76.021303. Bibcode: 2007PhRvC..76b1303M. 
  5. ↑ R. C. Barber; J. R. De Laeter (2009). "Comment on "Existence of long-lived isomeric states in naturally-occurring neutron-deficient Th isotopes"". Phys. Rev. C 79 (4). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.79.049801. Bibcode: 2009PhRvC..79d9801B. 
  6. ↑ A. Marinov; I. Rodushkin; Y. Kashiv; L. Halicz; I. Segal; A. Pape; R. V. Gentry; H. W. Miller et al. (2009). "Reply to "Comment on 'Existence of long-lived isomeric states in naturally-occurring neutron-deficient Th isotopes'"". Phys. Rev. C 79 (4). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.79.049802. Bibcode: 2009PhRvC..79d9802M. 
  7. ↑ J. Lachner; I. Dillmann; T. Faestermann; G. Korschinek; M. Poutivtsev; G. Rugel (2008). "Search for long-lived isomeric states in neutron-deficient thorium isotopes". Phys. Rev. C 78 (6). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.78.064313. Bibcode: 2008PhRvC..78f4313L. 
  8. ↑ Marinov, A.; Rodushkin, I.; Pape, A.; Kashiv, Y.; Kolb, D.; Brandt, R.; Gentry, R. V.; Miller, H. W. et al. (2009). "Existence of Long-Lived Isotopes of a Superheavy Element in Natural Au". International Journal of Modern Physics E (World Scientific Publishing Company) 18 (3): 621–629. doi:10.1142/S021830130901280X. Bibcode: 2009IJMPE..18..621M. http://www.phys.huji.ac.il/~marinov/publications/Au_paper_IJMPE_73.pdf. Retrieved February 12, 2012. 
  9. ↑ "עמותת מתנדבי יעקב מימון". https://www.maimon-volunteers.org/. 



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