Eur. Phys. J. A (2020) 56: 43
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-020-00051-w

Regular Article –Theoretical

Microscopic description of fission in superheavy nuclei with the parametrization D1M of the Gogny energy density functional

¹ Physics Department, Kuwait University, Kuwait, 13060, Kuwait
² Center for Computational Simulation, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, Boadilla del Monte, 28660, Madrid, Spain
³ Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

^* e-mail: luis.robledo@uam.es

Received: 10 July 2019
Accepted: 10 December 2019
Published online: 7 February 2020

Abstract

The constrained Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov approximation, based on the recent parametrization D1M of the Gogny energy density functional, is used to describe fission in 435 superheavy nuclei. The Gogny-D1M parametrization is benchmarked against available experimental data on inner and second barrier heights, excitation energies of the fission isomers and half-lives in a selected set of Pu, Cm, Cf, Fm, No, Rf, Sg, Hs and Fl nuclei. Results are also compared with those obtained with the Gogny-D1M energy density functional. A detailed study of the minimal energy fission paths is carried out for isotopic chains with atomic numbers 100 126 including very neutron-rich sectors up to around 4 MeV from the two-neutron driplines. Single-particle energies, ground state deformations, pairing correlations, two-nucleon separation energies and barrier heights are also discussed. In addition to fission paths, the constrained Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov framework provides collective masses and zero-point quantum rotational and vibrational energies. Those quantities are building blocks within the Wentzel–Kramer–Brillouin formalism employed to evaluate the systematic of the spontaneous fission half-lives . The competition between spontaneous fission and -decay is studied, through the computation of the -decay half-lives using a parametrization of the Viola–Seaborg formula. From the comparison with the available experimental data and the results obtained with other theoretical approaches, it is concluded that D1M represents a reasonable starting point to describe fission in heavy and superheavy nuclei.