- David, HM;
- Chen, J;
- Seweryniak, D;
- Kondev, FG;
- Gates, JM;
- Gregorich, KE;
- Ahmad, I;
- Albers, M;
- Alcorta, M;
- Back, BB;
- Baartman, B;
- Bertone, PF;
- Bernstein, LA;
- Campbell, CM;
- Carpenter, MP;
- Chiara, CJ;
- Clark, RM;
- Cromaz, M;
- Doherty, DT;
- Dracoulis, GD;
- Esker, NE;
- Fallon, P;
- Gothe, OR;
- Greene, JP;
- Greenlees, PT;
- Hartley, DJ;
- Hauschild, K;
- Hoffman, CR;
- Hota, SS;
- Janssens, RVF;
- Khoo, TL;
- Konki, J;
- Kwarsick, JT;
- Lauritsen, T;
- Macchiavelli, AO;
- Mudder, PR;
- Nair, C;
- Qiu, Y;
- Rissanen, J;
- Rogers, AM;
- Ruotsalainen, P;
- Savard, G;
- Stolze, S;
- Wiens, A;
- Zhu, S
Two isomers decaying by electromagnetic transitions with half-lives of 4.7(1.1) and 247(73) μs have been discovered in the heavy ^{254}Rf nucleus. The observation of the shorter-lived isomer was made possible by a novel application of a digital data acquisition system. The isomers were interpreted as the K^{π}=8^{-}, ν^{2}(7/2^{+}[624],9/2^{-}[734]) two-quasineutron and the K^{π}=16^{+}, 8^{-}ν^{2}(7/2^{+}[624],9/2^{-}[734])⊗8^{-}π^{2}(7/2^{-}[514],9/2^{+}[624]) four-quasiparticle configurations, respectively. Surprisingly, the lifetime of the two-quasiparticle isomer is more than 4 orders of magnitude shorter than what has been observed for analogous isomers in the lighter N=150 isotones. The four-quasiparticle isomer is longer lived than the ^{254}Rf ground state that decays exclusively by spontaneous fission with a half-life of 23.2(1.1) μs. The absence of sizable fission branches from either of the isomers implies unprecedented fission hindrance relative to the ground state.