Description of α-decay half-lives of heaviest nuclei

Abstract

The accuracy in describing α-decay half-lives T α of heavy and superheavy nuclei is studied. A simple five-parameter phenomenological formula, expressing T α as a function of the α-decay energy Q α, is considered. It is found that such a formula can describe measured values of T α within a factor of 1.3 for even-even, 2.1 for odd-even, 3.2 for even-odd, and 4.0 for odd-odd nuclei when measured values of Q α are taken. This accuracy is decreased by a factor of about 4 when theoretical values of Q α are used. The latter are obtained within a macroscopic-microscopic approach and reproduce the experimental values of Q α of the same nuclei with an average accuracy of about 190 keV for even-even, 270 keV for odd-even, 260 keV for even-odd, and 330 keV for odd-odd nuclei. In the analysis, 201 nuclei with proton number Z = 84–111 and neutron number N = 128–161, with measured values of both Q α and T α, are taken.