Highlydeformedrotatingnucleiandsuperheavyelementsin.docVIP

Multiple-humped fission and fusion barriers of actinide and superheavy elements G. Royer, C. Bonilla Laboratoire Subatech, UMR : IN2P3/CNRS-Université-EMN, 4 rue A. Kastler, 44307 Nantes Cedex 03, France (royer@subatech.in2p3.fr) Abstract The energy of a deformed nucleus has been determined within a Generalized Liquid Drop Model taking into account the proximity energy, the microscopic corrections and quasi-molecular shapes. In the potential barrier a third peak exists for actinides when one fragment is close to a magic spherical nucleus while the other one varies from oblate to prolate shapes. The barrier heights and half-lives agree with the experimental data. The different entrance channels leading possibly to superheavy elements are studied as well as their ?-decay. 1. Introduction The fission probability and the angular distribution of the fragments support the hypothesis of hyperdeformed states lodging in a third well in several Th and U isotopes1-2. In fusion reactions3-4 performed to produce superheavy elements, transfer reaction events correspond to decay of semi-equilibrated systems from an external potential pocket. These fission and fusion barriers have been determined5-6 using compact quasimolecular shapes and a generalized liquid drop model including the proximity energy and the shell effects. In fission the ellipsoidal deformations of the fragments have been taken into account. 2. Actinide nuclei The one-body nuclear deformation has been investigated in the compact and creviced shape path (see Fig. 1) while, for the two-body shapes, the coaxial ellipsoidal deformations have been taken into account. The dependence of the potential barriers on the assumed two-body shapes and microscopic corrections is displayed in Fig. 2. The shell effects generate the deformation of the ground state and increase the height of the first peak which appears already macroscopically. The proximity energy flattens the potential energy and will explain with the microscopi