Editing Rutherfordium (section)

==Isotopes==
{{Main|Isotopes of rutherfordium}}
Rutherfordium has no stable or naturally occurring isotopes. Several radioactive isotopes have been synthesized in the laboratory, either by fusing two atoms or by observing the decay of heavier elements. Seventeen different isotopes have been reported with atomic masses from 252 to 270 (with the exceptions of 264 and 269). Most of these decay predominantly through spontaneous fission, particularly isotopes with [[even and odd atomic nuclei|even neutron numbers]], while some of the lighter isotopes with odd neutron numbers also have significant alpha decay branches.<ref name="nuclidetable" /><ref name="isotopes">{{cite web | title=Six New Isotopes of the Superheavy Elements Discovered | website=Berkeley Lab News Center | date=26 October 2010 | url=https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/10/26/six-new-isotopes/ | access-date=5 April 2019}}</ref> 

===Stability and half-lives===
Out of isotopes whose half-lives are known, the lighter isotopes usually have shorter half-lives. The three lightest known isotopes have half-lives of under 50&nbsp;μs, with the lightest reported isotope <sup>252</sup>Rf having a half-life shorter than one microsecond.<ref name=252Rf>{{cite journal |first1=J. |last1=Khuyagbaatar |first2=P. |last2=Mosat |first3=J. |last3=Ballof |first4=R. A. |last4=Cantemir |first5=Ch. E. |last5=Düllmann |first6=K. |last6=Hermainski |first7=F. P. |last7=Heßberger |first8=E. |last8=Jäger |first9=B. |last9=Kindler |first10=J. |last10=Krier |first11=N. |last11=Kurz |first12=S. |last12=Löchner |first13=B. |last13=Lommel |first14=B. |last14=Schausten |first15=Y. |last15=Wei |first16=P. |last16=Wieczorek |first17=A. |last17=Yakushev |display-authors=3 |title=Stepping into the sea of instability: The new sub-𝜇s superheavy nucleus <sup>252</sup>Rf |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=2025 |volume=134 |number=22501 |page=022501 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.022501|arxiv=2501.08955 }}</ref><ref name="253Rf-2022">{{cite journal |last1=Lopez-Martens |first1=A. |last2=Hauschild |first2=K. |last3=Svirikhin |first3=A. I. |last4=Asfari |first4=Z. |last5=Chelnokov |first5=M. L. |last6=Chepigin |first6=V. I. |last7=Dorvaux |first7=O. |last8=Forge |first8=M. |last9=Gall |first9=B. |last10=Isaev |first10=A. V. |last11=Izosimov |first11=I. N. |last12=Kessaci |first12=K. |last13=Kuznetsova |first13=A. A. |last14=Malyshev |first14=O. N. |last15=Mukhin |first15=R. S. |last16=Popeko |first16=A. G. |last17=Popov |first17=Yu. A. |last18=Sailaubekov |first18=B. |last19=Sokol |first19=E. A. |last20=Tezekbayeva |first20=M. S. |last21=Yeremin |first21=A. V. |display-authors=3 |title=Fission properties of Rf 253 and the stability of neutron-deficient Rf isotopes |journal=Physical Review C |date=22 February 2022 |volume=105 |issue=2 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevC.105.L021306 |url=https://journals.aps.org/prc/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevC.105.L021306 |access-date=16 June 2023 |language=en |issn=2469-9985|arxiv=2202.11802 |s2cid=247072308 }}</ref> The isotopes <sup>256</sup>Rf, <sup>258</sup>Rf, <sup>260</sup>Rf are more stable at around 10&nbsp;ms; <sup>255</sup>Rf, <sup>257</sup>Rf, <sup>259</sup>Rf, and <sup>262</sup>Rf live between 1 and 5 seconds; and <sup>261</sup>Rf, <sup>265</sup>Rf, and <sup>263</sup>Rf are more stable, at around 1.1, 1.5, and 10 minutes respectively. The most stable known isotope, <sup>267</sup>Rf, is one of the heaviest, and has a half-life of about 48 minutes.<ref name="PuCa2022b">{{cite journal |title=Investigation of <sup>48</sup>Ca-induced reactions with <sup>242</sup>Pu and <sup>238</sup>U targets at the JINR Superheavy Element Factory |journal=Physical Review C |volume=106 |number=24612 |year=2022 |first1=Yu. Ts. |last1=Oganessian |first2=V. K. |last2=Utyonkov |first3=D. |last3=Ibadullayev |page=024612 |display-authors=et al. |doi= 10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024612|bibcode=2022PhRvC.106b4612O |osti=1883808 |s2cid=251759318}}</ref> Rutherfordium isotopes with an odd neutron number tend to have longer half-lives than their even–even neighbors because the odd neutron provides additional hindrance against spontaneous fission.

The lightest isotopes were synthesized by direct fusion between two lighter nuclei and as decay products. The heaviest isotope produced by direct fusion is <sup>262</sup>Rf; heavier isotopes have only been observed as decay products of elements with larger atomic numbers. The heavy isotopes <sup>266</sup>Rf and <sup>268</sup>Rf have also been reported as [[electron capture]] daughters of the [[dubnium]] isotopes <sup>266</sup>Db and <sup>268</sup>Db, but have short half-lives to [[spontaneous fission]]. It seems likely that the same is true for <sup>270</sup>Rf, a possible daughter of <sup>270</sup>Db.<ref name="270Rf">{{cite book|last=Stock|first=Reinhard|title=Encyclopedia of Nuclear Physics and its Applications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zVrdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT305|date=13 September 2013|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-3-527-64926-6|page=305|oclc=867630862}}</ref> These three isotopes remain unconfirmed.

In 1999, American scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, announced that they had succeeded in synthesizing three atoms of <sup>293</sup>Og.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ninov |first=Viktor |display-authors=etal |title=Observation of Superheavy Nuclei Produced in the Reaction of {{SimpleNuclide|Krypton|86}} with {{SimpleNuclide|Lead|208}} |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]] |volume=83 |issue=6 |pages=1104–1107 |date=1999 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.1104 |bibcode=1999PhRvL..83.1104N |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1233919 |access-date=2018-11-04 |archive-date=2023-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718161424/https://zenodo.org/record/1233919 |url-status=live }}</ref> These parent nuclei were reported to have successively emitted seven alpha particles to form <sup>265</sup>Rf nuclei, but their claim was retracted in 2001.<ref>{{cite web | title=Results of Element 118 Experiment Retracted | website=Berkeley Lab Research News | date=2001-07-21 | url=http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/118-retraction.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080129191344/http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/118-retraction.html | archive-date=29 January 2008 | access-date=5 April 2019 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> This isotope was later discovered in 2010 as the final product in the decay chain of <sup>285</sup>Fl.<ref name="PuCa2017" /><ref name="10El">{{cite journal|last1=Ellison|first1=P.|last2=Gregorich|first2=K.|last3=Berryman|first3=J.|last4=Bleuel|first4=D.|last5=Clark|first5=R.|last6=Dragojević|first6=I.|last7=Dvorak|first7=J.|last8=Fallon|first8=P.|last9=Fineman-Sotomayor|first9=C.|display-authors=etal|title=New Superheavy Element Isotopes: <sup>242</sup>Pu(<sup>48</sup>Ca,5n)<sup>285</sup>114|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=105|year=2010|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.182701|bibcode=2010PhRvL.105r2701E|pmid=21231101|issue=18|page=182701|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc831769/|access-date=2019-07-14|archive-date=2019-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702153317/https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc831769/|url-status=live}}</ref>