α-nucleus potentials, α-decay half-lives, and shell closures for superheavy nuclei

Abstract

Systematic \ensuremath{\alpha}-nucleus folding potentials are used to analyze \ensuremath{\alpha}-decay half-lives of superheavy nuclei. Preformation factors of about several percent are found for all nuclei under study. The systematic behavior of the preformation factors and the volume integrals of the potentials allows predictions of \ensuremath{\alpha}-decay energies and half-lives for unknown nuclei. Shell closures can be determined from measured \ensuremath{\alpha}-decay energies using the discontinuity of the volume integral at shell closures. For the first time a double shell closure is predicted for ${Z}_{\mathrm{magic}}=132,{N}_{\mathrm{magic}}=194$, and ${A}_{\mathrm{magic}}=326$ from the systematics of folding potentials. The calculated \ensuremath{\alpha}-decay half-lives remain far below 1 ns for superheavy nuclei with double shell closure and masses $Ag300$ independent of the precise knowledge of the magic proton and neutron numbers.