SHELL CORRECTIONS FOR HEAVY AND SUPERHEAVY NUCLEI

Abstract

The shell and pairing correction energies are calculated for heavy and superheavy nuclei (SHN) by means of the Strutinsky's method. The single-particle (s.p.) energy levels are obtained from the diagonalization of the Woods–Saxon s.p. Hamiltonian in the deformed harmonic oscillator basis for both neutrons and protons. The residual pairing interaction is calculated by means of the usual Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) approximation. A two-dimensional deformation space describing axially and reflection-symmetric shapes of nuclei has been used. Based on the shell and pairing correction energies, the signatures of the magic numbers appear at the spherical shell closures Z = 82, 114, 164 and N = 126, 184, 228 and 308. There are also signatures for some other shell closures at, e.g., Z = 108 and N = 162 which appear only when the deformation degrees of freedom is taken into account.