Predictive analysis of decay pathways in doubly-odd superheavy nuclei

Abstract

The competition between \(\alpha\)-decay and spontaneous fission (\(\textrm{SF}\)) of unknown doubly-odd superheavy nuclei (SHN) is investigated by comparing their theoretical \(\alpha\)-decay half-lives (\(T^{\alpha }_{1/2}\)-values) and \(\textrm{SF}\)-half-lives (\(T^{\textrm{SF}}_{1/2}\)-values). At first, the calculations for the \(\alpha\)-particle’s preformation probabilities (\(P_{\alpha }\)’s) are performed for 66 doubly-odd \(\alpha\)-emitters with Z ranging from \(83 \le\) Z \(\le\) 117 employing a microscopic phenomenological approach involving the energy density functional (EDF) of the Skyrme force within Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation. This methodology naturally incorporates the effect of the closed-shell structure in terms of global quantum number (G). The calculated results are also compared with those obtained using other theoretical methods. Our results also fit fairly well within \(N_P N_N I\)-scheme. Hence, we can estimate the preformation probabilities and predict \(\alpha\)-decay half-lives for unknown superheavy nuclei taking WS4 \(\alpha\)-disintegration energies as input. The study of branching ratios led us to identify \(\alpha\)-decay chains originating from these unknown SHN. We believe our predictions can aid future experiments in producing new superheavy elements.