An improved α-decay energy formula for heavy and superheavy nuclei *

Abstract

Abstract Based on the liquid-drop model and using the first derivative of the normalized Gaussian function to consider the shell correction, a simple α-decay energy formula is proposed for heavy and superheavy nuclei. The values of corresponding adjustable parameters are obtained by fitting α-decay energies of 209 nuclei ranging from Z = 90 to Z = 118 with N ≥ 140. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The average and standard deviations between the experimental data and theoretical results are 0.141 and 0.190 MeV, respectively. For comparison, the reliable formulae proposed by Dong T K et al (2010, Phys. Rev. C 82, 034 320), Dong J M et al (2010, Phys. Rev. C 81, 064 309) and the WS3+ nuclear mass model proposed by Wang N et al (2011, Phys. Rev. C 84, 051 303) are also used. The results indicate that our improved 7-parameter formula is superior to these empirical formulae and is largely consistent with the WS3+ nuclear mass model. In addition, we extend this formula to predict the α-decay energies for nuclei with Z = 117, 118, 119 and 120. The predicted results of these formulae are basically consistent.