Properties of heavy and superheavy nuclei

Recent studies of the properties of heaviest nuclei done in our theoretical group in Warsaw are shortly reviewed. They concentrate mainly on two topics: heights of static fission barriers Bfst and single-particle properties of these nuclei. In the analysis of Bfst, a crucial role is played by the deformation space used in the analysis. Results obtained in the case when only axially symmetric shapes of a nucleus are admitted, and also when non-axial deformations are included, are illustrated. Concerning the single-particle properties of heaviest nuclei, one-quasiparticle spectra of them are discussed. Influence of the spectra on the transition energies in the a-decay chains and also on the a-decay half-lives are illustrated