Fission barriers in covariant density functional theory: Extrapolation to superheavy nuclei

Abstract

Systematic calculations of fission barriers allowing for triaxial deformation are performed for even-even superheavy nuclei with charge number Z = 112–120 using three classes of covariant density functional models. The softness of nuclei in the triaxial plane leads to an emergence of several competing fission paths in the region of the inner fission barrier in some of these nuclei. The outer fission barriers are considerably affected by triaxiality and octupole deformation. General trends of the evolution of the inner and the outer fission barrier heights are discussed as a function of the particle numbers.