Potential energy and fission barriers of superheavy nuclei calculated in multidimensional deformation space

Abstract

The ground-state collective potential energy of even-even superheavy nuclei with the proton numberZ=112–130 and the neutron numberN=152–210 is analyzed in a multidimensional deformation space. The energy is calculated by the macroscopic-microscopic method. The Yukawa-plus-exponential model is used for the macroscopic part of the energy and the Strutinski shell correction, based on the Woods-Saxon single-particle potential, is taken as the microscopic part. Three axial-symmetric deformations:β2,β4,β6, and quadrupole and hexadecapole non-axial deformations are taken into account. The spontaneous-fission and alpha-decay half-lives are also calculated. Rather low fission barriers (3–7 MeV lower than calculated previously) are obtained, especially when non-axial shapes of a nucleus are considered. Nevertheless, the calculated fission lifetimes are larger than the alpha-decay half-lives for most of considered nuclides. A large number of nuclides withZ=112–122 is predicted to have the total half-life long enough to be detected, when synthesized in the laboratory.