Spontaneous-fission half-lives of deformed superheavy nuclei

Abstract

Spontaneous-fission half-lives of the heaviest nuclei are analyzed in a multidimensional deformation space. They are calculated in a dynamical approach, without any adjustable parameters. The potential energy is obtained by the macroscopic-microscopic method and the inertia tensor by the cranking method. The action integral is minimized by a variational procedure. Even-even nuclei with proton number Z=104–114 and neutron number N=142–176 are considered. The results reproduce existing experimental data rather well. Relatively long half-lives are predicted for many unknown nuclei, sufficient to detect them if synthesized in a laboratory.