Potential energy surfaces and fission fragment mass yields of even-even superheavy nuclei

Potential energy surfaces and fission barriers of superheavy nuclei are analyzed in a macroscopic-microscopic model. The Lublin-Strasbourg Drop (LSD) model is used to obtain the macroscopic part of the energy, whereas the shell and pairing energy corrections are evaluated using the Yukawa-folded potential; a standard flooding technique is utilized to determine barrier heights. A Fourier shape parametrization containing only three deformation parameters is shown to effectively reproduce the nuclear shapes of nuclei approaching fission. In addition, a non-axial degree of freedom is taken into account to better describe the structure of nuclei around the ground state and in the saddle region. In addition to the symmetric fission valley, a new highly asymmetric fission mode is predicted in most superheavy nuclei. The fission fragment mass distributions of the considered nuclei are obtained by solving 3D Langevin equations.