2008/02/26 by P. Roy Chowdhury, P. Chowdhury, C. Samanta +1 · 11 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Nuclear physics research studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #nucl-ex #nucl-th #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.77.044603
published as Phys.Rev.C77:044603,2008 · 14 pages, 6 figures, 1 table
arxiv created 2008/02/26 · openalex publication_date 2008/04/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The existence of long lived superheavy nuclei (SHN) is controlled mainly by spontaneous fission and \ensuremathα-decay processes. According to microscopic nuclear theory, spherical shell effects at Z=114, 120, 126 and N=184 provide the extra stability to such SHN to have long enough lifetime to be observed. To investigate whether the so-called ``stability island'' could really exist around the above Z, N values, the \ensuremathα-decay half-lives along with the spontaneous fission and \ensuremathβ-decay half-lives of such nuclei are studied. The \ensuremathα-decay half-lives of SHN with Z=102--120 are calculated in a quantum tunneling model with DDM3Y effective nuclear interaction using Q_\ensuremathα values from three different mass formulas prescribed by Koura-Uno-Tachibana-Yamada (KUTY), Myers-Swiatecki (MS), and Muntian-Hofmann-Patyk-Sobiczewski (MMM). Calculation of spontaneous fission (SF) half-lives for the same SHN are carried out using a phenomenological formula and compared with SF half-lives predicted by Smolanczuk et al. A possible source of discrepancy between the calculated \ensuremathα-decay half-lives of some nuclei and the experimental data of GSI, JINR-FLNR, RIKEN, is discussed. In the region of Z=106--108 with N~ 160--164, the \ensuremathβ-stable SHN 106268Sg162 is predicted to have highest \ensuremathα-decay half-life (T_\ensuremathα~3.2 h) using Q_\ensuremathα value from MMM. Interestingly, it is much greater than the recently measured T_\ensuremathα (~22 s) of deformed doubly magic 108270Hs162 nucleus. A few fission-survived long-lived SHN which are either \ensuremathβ-stable or having large \ensuremathβ-decay half-lives are predicted to exist near 294110184, 293110183, 296112184, and 298114184. These nuclei might decay predominantly through \ensuremathα-particle emission.