New islands of stability using the finite-potential approach to superheavy elements. Chapter 9

The objective of this paper is to give a short review of recent theoretical studies on the properties of heaviest nuclei. Such properties as mass, modes of decay and respective half-lives are discussed. The theoretical studies are closely connected with, and motivated by, an intensive experimental activity in this field. To make predictions for yet unknown superheavy nuclei, a large region of nuclides, including those with already well studied properties, has been investigated in the reviewed papers. Even-even nuclei with the proton number Z=82-120 and the neutron number N=126-190 have been considered. The properties of known nuclei have been used to test the theoretical approach. In Sect. 2 the specific features of heaviest nuclei have been discussed and in Sect. 3 the macroscopic-microscopic approach used in the calculations of their properties has been described. Sect. 4 gives an extensive illustration of the results obtained with this approach and Sect. 5 presents the conclusions drawn from the reviewed studies