Potential energy landscapes of Th isotopes within the Lublin Strasbourg drop + Yukawa-folded model

Abstract

Advanced calculations of potential energy surfaces in a four-dimensional deformation space were performed for even–even Th isotopes using the macroscopic–microscopic method. The macroscopic part of the total energy was derived from the Lublin Strasbourg drop model. The Yukawa-folded potential was used to generate the single-particle spectra. The asymptotic Strutinsky shell-correction method and the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory with approximate particle number projection were used to evaluate the microscopic part of the nuclear energy. Predictions for the ground-state masses and fission-barrier heights agree well with the experimental data. An accurate analysis of the computed multi-dimensional energy maps is in progress. Our preliminary results indicate that the present approach is capable of addressing the evolution of fission modality in the actinide region.