Effects of shell correction on α decay properties**Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11675066, 11475050), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2017-ot04) and Feitian Scholar Project of Gansu Province

Abstract

The shell correction effects on the α decay properties of heavy and superheavy nuclei have been studied in a macroscopic-microscopic manner. The macroscopic part is constructed from the generalized liquid drop model (GLDM), whereas the microscopic part, namely, the shell correction energy, brings about certain effects on the potential barriers and half-lives under a WKB approximation, which is emphasized in this work. The results show that the shell effects play a significant role in the estimation of the α decay half-lives within the actinide region. Predictions of the α decay half-lives are then generated for superheavy nuclei, which will provide useful information for future experiments.