Potential energy and fission barriers of superheavy nuclei calculated in multidimensional deformation space

The ground-state collective potential energy of even-even superheavy nuclei with the proton number Z = 112-130 and the neutron number N = 152-210 is analyzed in a multidimensional deformation space. The energy is calculated by the macroscopic-microscopic method. The Yukawa-plusexponential model is used for the macroscopic part of the energy and the Strutinski shell correction, based on the Woods-Saxon single-particle potential, is taken as the microscopic part. Three axial-symmetric deformations: β2, β4, β6, and quadrupole and hexadecapole non-axial deformations are taken into account. The spontaneous-fission and alpha-decay half-lives are also calculated. Rather low fission barriers (3-7 MeV lower than calculated previously) are obtained, especially when non-axial shapes of a nucleus are considered. Nevertheless, the calculated fission lifetimes are larger than the alpha-decay half-lives for most of considered nuclides. A large number of nuclides with Z = 112-122 is predicted to have the total half-life long enough to be detected, when synthesized in a laboratory. (orig.)