Mapping the nuclear landscape: 50 years of the Karlsruher Nuklidkarte

Abstract

Radioactivity has been known for more than a hundred years. Nuclear data compilations through nuclide charts began in the 1920s with the work of Soddy, and were later rationalized in the Karlsruher Nuklidkarte. For 50 years, it has depicted the status of our nuclear knowledge in an easy reading form. It was born as an educational and scientific tool that gives access to the basic bricks that the nuclear Physics community needs to build the physics knowledge at the femtometer (10⁻¹⁵ m) level. Nuclide data is a bridge between research and development. On the one hand, the nucleus can be regarded as a vast laboratory with, the possibility to test from fundamental concepts of the Standard Model to the genesis of the elements in the Universe. On the other hand, this data is also leading to applications in many areas of everyday life such as health care or environmental monitoring.