Structure and -decay properties of the heaviest nuclei

The α -decay is considered from the viewpoint of the many body features of internal nuclear motion and the theory of resonance reactions, as well. The α -half-lives are derived from clustering and scattering amplitudes given by self-consistent nuclear models for the nuclear shell structure and reaction dynamics. Calculations are performed for superheavy nuclei with Z = 102 – 120 using the measured E α values, microscopic (shell model) or macroscopic (one body) cluster formation amplitudes and resonance scattering amplitudes. Theoretical results for α -half-lives are compared to data and empirical estimates. We prove that the Brown systematics ( log T α (s) vs. Z d 0.6 Q α − 1 / 2 , where Q α (MeV) is the effective decay energy, and Z d is the charge number of the daughter nucleus) of current decay data is very useful in the analysis and interpretation of data and prediction of new results. It is shown that by adding even–odd corrections to the calculated α -half-lives, the agreement with experimental data is improved and basic trends in the systematics of data are well reproduced. Spectroscopic information is derived from the ratio of theoretical to experimental results. The accuracy of available experimental half-lives is discussed.