Global α-decay study based on the mass table of the relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov theory**Supported by Major State 973 Program of China (2013CB834400), National Natural Science Foundation of China (11175002, 11335002, 11375015, 11461141002), Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20110001110087) and National Undergraduate Innovation Training Programs of Peking University.

Abstract

The α-decay energies (Qα) are systematically investigated with the nuclear masses for 10 ⩽ Z ⩽ 120 isotopes obtained by the relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) theory with the covariant density functional PC-PK1, and compared with available experimental values. It is found that the α-decay energies deduced from the RCHB results present a similar pattern to those from available experiments. Owing to the large predicted Qα values (⩾ 4 MeV), many undiscovered heavy nuclei in the proton-rich side and super-heavy nuclei may have large possibilities for α-decay. The influence of nuclear shell structure on α-decay energies is also analysed.