Fission barriers in covariant density functional theory: extrapolation to superheavy nuclei

TL;DR

This study systematically calculates fission barriers in superheavy nuclei using covariant density functional theory, revealing the influence of triaxiality and octupole deformation on barrier heights and fission paths.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of fission barriers in superheavy nuclei considering triaxial and octupole deformations within covariant density functional models.

Findings

Multiple competing fission paths emerge due to triaxial softness.

Outer barriers are significantly affected by triaxiality and octupole deformation.

Fission barrier heights vary systematically with particle number.

Abstract

Systematic calculations of fission barriers allowing for triaxial deformation are performed for even-even superheavy nuclei with charge number $Z=112-120$ using three classes of covariant density functional models. The softness of nuclei in the triaxial plane leads to an emergence of several competing fission pathes in the region of the inner fission barrier in some of these nuclei. The outer fission barriers are considerably affected by triaxiality and octupole deformation. General trends of the evolution of the inner and the outer fission barrier heights are discussed as a function of the particle numbers.