Can element 120 be made with titanium-50 beams?
In plain words
The heaviest element made so far is oganesson (element 118), produced with calcium-48 beams that cannot go higher with available targets. Element 120 requires heavier beams such as titanium-50, which produce new elements far more rarely.
Precise statement
Measure or bound the fusion-evaporation cross section for $50\mathrm{Ti} + 249\mathrm{Cf} \to 120$ (and $54\mathrm{Cr} + 248\mathrm{Cm}$) at optimal excitation energy. LBNL produced two atoms of $290\mathrm{Lv}$ via $50\mathrm{Ti} + 244\mathrm{Pu}$ (Gates et al., PRL 133, 172502, 2024), demonstrating the beam route. Answer: observed decay chains establishing $Z = 120$, or a cross-section limit testing fusion-evaporation models.
What would settle it
Observation of correlated decay chains assigned to $Z = 120$ in a separator experiment, confirmed by a second laboratory.
Status in the literature
Unverified note
LBNL demonstrated the 50Ti route with livermorium in 2024 and planned a $Z = 120$ search; no element 120 event had been reported, to our knowledge, as of mid-2026.