Microscopic description of structural, surface, and decay properties of Z=124, 126 superheavy nuclei

Abstract

A systematic investigation has been carried out for even-even isotopic series of two superheavy nuclei with Z=124 and Z=126 in the region 160≤N≤220, and 162≤N≤218, respectively, within the framework of covariant density functional theory (CDFT). Based on the potential energy curves calculated using the explicit density-dependent meson-exchange (DD-ME) and point-coupling (DD-PC) models, many sensitive observables have been analyzed to understand the structural evolution, shape coexistence, and to predict the possible candidates for neutron shell-closure within the isotopic series of Z=124 and Z=126. The shell correction energy and nuclear symmetry energy have been evaluated within the Strutinsky shell correction approach and the Coherent Density Fluctuation Model (CDFM), respectively. All the sensitive observables i.e. two-neutron separation energy, its differential, neutron-pairing energy, single-particle energy levels, and total shell-correction energy reproduce known spherical neutron magic numbers, and present evidence on new deformed neutron magic numbers at N=168, 174 and 178. The symmetry energy shows a direct correlation with the shape of the system. The α-decay chain of four isotopes 124298,302 and 126300,304 have been studied within three different semi-empirical approaches named UNIV2, SemFIS2 and ImSahu, and compared with the available experimental data, FRDM2012 and the WS4 mass model. All the models, DD-ME2, DD-PC1, FRDM2012, and WS4 have predicted around 8α to 10α decay before spontaneous fission (SF) can start.