Role of higher-multipolarity deformations in the potential energy of heaviest nuclei

Potential energy of the superheavy nucleus ²⁸⁴114 is analyzed in a 6-dimensional deformation space. This space includes two quadrupole, three hexadecapole and one multipolarity-6 deformation parameter. The energy is minimized simultaneously in all 6 degrees of freedom. The analysis is done within a macroscopic-microscopic approach. As in the studies of other superheavy nuclei, the result is found to be very individual for a given nucleus. A more general feature is a small effect of one (γ₄) of the hexadecapole deformation parameters on the energy of the nucleus. (author)