<i>α</i>-decay half-lives of superheavy nuclei within a one-parameter model*

Abstract The α -decay half-lives of superheavy nuclei (SHN) with charge numbers are investigated by employing a phenomenological one-parameter model based on quantum-mechanical tunneling through a potential barrier, where both the centrifugal and overlapping effects have been considered. It is shown that the experimental α -decay half-lives of the 81 SHN are reproduced well. Moreover, the order of magnitude for the α -particle preformation probability inside a parent nucleus ( ) is found to be . Then, within this model, the values and α -decay half-lives of Z = 118−120 isotopes are predicted by inputting the α -decay energies ( ) extracted from the relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) theory, Duflo-Zuker 19 (DZ19, where 19 denotes the number of fitting parameters) model, improved Weizsacker-Skyrme (lMWS) model, and machine learning (ML) approach. By analyzing the evolutions of , and α -decay half-lives of Z = 118−120 isotopes with the neutron number N of the parent nucleus, it is found that the shell effect at N = 184 is evident for all nuclear mass models. Meanwhile, for the case of the RCHB, N = 172 is determined as a submagic number. However, the submagic number at N = 172 is replaced by N = 178 for the ML approach.