Systematic Study of Survival Probability of Excited Superheavy Nuclei

TL;DR

This paper systematically investigates the survival probability of excited superheavy nuclei against fission and neutron emission, highlighting the influence of shell effects and predicting an island of stability around Z=115 and N=179.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the survival probabilities of excited superheavy nuclei using a statistical model and consistent shell correction energies, emphasizing the role of shell effects.

Findings

Survival probability peaks around Z=115 and N=179.

Shell effects significantly influence stability of excited superheavy nuclei.

The island of stability persists in excited states according to the model.

Abstract

The stability of excited superheavy nuclei (SHN) with $100 \leq Z \leq 134$ against neutron emission and fission is investigated by using a statistical model. In particular, a systematic study of the survival probability against fission in the 1n-channel of these SHN is made. In present calculations the neutron separation energies and shell correction energies are consistently taken from the calculated results of the finite range droplet model which predicts an island of stability of SHN around Z=115 and N=179. It turns out that this island of stability persists for excited SHN in the sense that the calculated survival probabilities in the 1n-channel of excited SHN at the optimal excitation energy are maximized around Z=115 and N=179. This indicates that the survival probability in the 1n-channel is mainly determined by the nuclear shell effects.