Fission of super-heavy nuclei explored with Skyrme forces

TL;DR

This study uses the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock model to systematically analyze spontaneous fission lifetimes of super-heavy nuclei (Z=104-122), highlighting shell effects and decay mode transitions.

Contribution

It provides a large-scale, self-consistent survey of fission lifetimes in super-heavy elements using multiple Skyrme forces, with detailed modeling of fission paths and tunneling probabilities.

Findings

Acceptable agreement with experimental data for Z=104-108

Reveals shell stabilization islands and decay mode crossover

Systematic trends in fission lifetimes across super-heavy nuclei

Abstract

We present a large scale survey of life-times for spontaneous fission in the regime of super-heavy elements (SHE), i.e. nuclei with Z=104-122. This is done on the basis of the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock model. The axially symmetric fission path is computed using a quadrupole constraint. Self-consistent cranking is used for the collective masses and associated quantum corrections. The actual tunneling probability is estimated by the WKB approximation. Three typical Skyrme forces are used to explore the sensitivity of the results. Benchmarks in the regime Z=104-108 show an acceptable agreement. The general systematics reflects nicely the islands of shell stabilization and the crossover from $\alpha$-decay to fission for the decay chains from the region of Z/N=118/176.