Recent progress in experiments on the heaviest nuclides at SHIP

Understanding the atomic and nuclear properties of very heavy and superheavy nuclides is one of the main objectives in experiments at the recoil separator SHIP at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany. This article summarizes recent experiments performed on isotopes of the elements with Z = 102–105. The radionuclides of interest were produced in heavy-ion fusion-evaporation reactions with lead and bismuth targets and separated from the primary beam by the velocity filter SHIP. The studies by α – γ spectroscopy experiments, direct mass measurements and laser spectroscopy employed the SHIP decay-spectroscopy setup, the new COMPASS detector, the mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP, and the laser spectroscopy setup RADRIS. This article briefly introduces the experimental approaches and discusses selected results providing a more comprehensive picture of the nuclear structure around the deformed neutron shell closure at N=152 . Future perspectives to extend such experiments towards other regions in the heaviest nuclei will also be addressed.