DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Covariant density functional theory input for r-process simulations in actinides and superheavy nuclei: The ground state and fission properties

Abstract

A systematic investigation of the ground-state and fission properties of even-even actinides and superheavy nuclei with Z = 90–120 from the two-proton up to two-neutron drip lines with proper assessment of systematic theoretical uncertainties has been performed for the first time in the framework of covariant density functional theory (CDFT). Furthermore, these results provide a necessary theoretical input for the r-process modeling in heavy nuclei and, in particular, for the study of fission cycling. Four state-of-the-art globally tested covariant energy density functionals (CEDFs), namely, DD-PC1, DD-ME2, NL3*, and PC-PK1, representing the major classes of the CDFT models are employed in the present paper. Ground-state deformations, binding energies, two-neutron separation energies, α-decay Qα values and half-lives, and the heights of fission barriers have been calculated for all these nuclei. Theoretical uncertainties in these physical observables and their evolution as a function of proton and neutron numbers have been quantified and their major sources have been identified. Spherical shell closures at Z = 120, N = 184, and N = 258 and the structure of the single-particle (especially, high-j) states in their vicinities as well as nuclear matter properties of employed CEDFs are two major factors contributing to theoretical uncertainties. However, differentmore » physical observables are affected in a different way by these two factors. For example, theoretical uncertainties in calculated ground-state deformations are affected mostly by the former factor, while theoretical uncertainties in fission barriers depend on both of these factors.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States)
  2. Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States); Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Legon (Ghana)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
OSTI Identifier:
1785281
Grant/Contract Number:  
NA0002925; SC0013037
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review. C
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 102; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9985
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; Alpha decay; Fission; Nuclear binding; Nuclear density functional theory; Nuclear structure & decays; Nucleosynthesis in explosive environments; 190 ≤ A ≤ 219; A ≥ 220

Citation Formats

Taninah, A., Agbemava, S. E., and Afanasjev, A. V. Covariant density functional theory input for r-process simulations in actinides and superheavy nuclei: The ground state and fission properties. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevc.102.054330.
Taninah, A., Agbemava, S. E., & Afanasjev, A. V. Covariant density functional theory input for r-process simulations in actinides and superheavy nuclei: The ground state and fission properties. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.102.054330
Taninah, A., Agbemava, S. E., and Afanasjev, A. V. Mon . "Covariant density functional theory input for r-process simulations in actinides and superheavy nuclei: The ground state and fission properties". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.102.054330. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1785281.
@article{osti_1785281,
title = {Covariant density functional theory input for r-process simulations in actinides and superheavy nuclei: The ground state and fission properties},
author = {Taninah, A. and Agbemava, S. E. and Afanasjev, A. V.},
abstractNote = {A systematic investigation of the ground-state and fission properties of even-even actinides and superheavy nuclei with Z = 90–120 from the two-proton up to two-neutron drip lines with proper assessment of systematic theoretical uncertainties has been performed for the first time in the framework of covariant density functional theory (CDFT). Furthermore, these results provide a necessary theoretical input for the r-process modeling in heavy nuclei and, in particular, for the study of fission cycling. Four state-of-the-art globally tested covariant energy density functionals (CEDFs), namely, DD-PC1, DD-ME2, NL3*, and PC-PK1, representing the major classes of the CDFT models are employed in the present paper. Ground-state deformations, binding energies, two-neutron separation energies, α-decay Qα values and half-lives, and the heights of fission barriers have been calculated for all these nuclei. Theoretical uncertainties in these physical observables and their evolution as a function of proton and neutron numbers have been quantified and their major sources have been identified. Spherical shell closures at Z = 120, N = 184, and N = 258 and the structure of the single-particle (especially, high-j) states in their vicinities as well as nuclear matter properties of employed CEDFs are two major factors contributing to theoretical uncertainties. However, different physical observables are affected in a different way by these two factors. For example, theoretical uncertainties in calculated ground-state deformations are affected mostly by the former factor, while theoretical uncertainties in fission barriers depend on both of these factors.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevc.102.054330},
journal = {Physical Review. C},
number = 5,
volume = 102,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Mon Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2020}
}

Works referenced in this record:

The fission barriers in Actinides and superheavy nuclei in covariant density functional theory
journal, May 2010


Relativistic Hartree?Bogoliubov theory: static and dynamic aspects of exotic nuclear structure
journal, April 2005


Thomas-Fermi fission barriers
journal, June 1999


Fission properties of superheavy nuclei for r -process calculations
journal, March 2018

  • Giuliani, Samuel A.; Martínez-Pinedo, Gabriel; Robledo, Luis M.
  • Physical Review C, Vol. 97, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.97.034323

Relativistic mean-field interaction with density-dependent meson-nucleon vertices based on microscopical calculations
journal, November 2011


Triaxial quadrupole dynamics and the inner fission barrier of some heavy even-even nuclei
journal, September 2017


The fundamental role of fission during r-process nucleosynthesis in neutron star mergers
journal, February 2015


Propagation of statistical uncertainties in covariant density functional theory: Ground state observables and single-particle properties
journal, January 2019


Structure properties of even–even actinides at normal and super deformed shapes analysed using the Gogny force
journal, May 2006


Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational-wave event
journal, October 2017

  • Kasen, Daniel; Metzger, Brian; Barnes, Jennifer
  • Nature, Vol. 551, Issue 7678
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature24453

Pairing-induced speedup of nuclear spontaneous fission
journal, December 2014


The effective force NL3 revisited
journal, January 2009


Extension of the nuclear landscape to hyperheavy nuclei
journal, March 2019


Optimizing the relativistic energy density functional with nuclear ground state and collective excitation properties
journal, March 2019


Information content of a new observable: The case of the nuclear neutron skin
journal, May 2010


Neutron drip line: Single-particle degrees of freedom and pairing properties as sources of theoretical uncertainties
journal, January 2015


New parametrization for the nuclear covariant energy density functional with a point-coupling interaction
journal, November 2010


Time-odd mean fields in covariant density functional theory: Nonrotating systems
journal, January 2010


Nuclear density-functional theory and fission of super-heavy elements
journal, February 2018


New calculations of α-decay half-lives by the Viola-Seaborg formula
journal, September 2005


Synthesis and study of properties of superheavy atoms. Factory of Superheavy Elements
journal, September 2016

  • Oganessian, Yu Ts; Dmitriev, S. N.
  • Russian Chemical Reviews, Vol. 85, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1070/RCR4607

Relativistic mean field theory in finite nuclei
journal, January 1996


Error estimates of theoretical models: a guide
journal, May 2014

  • Dobaczewski, J.; Nazarewicz, W.; Reinhard, P-G
  • Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 41, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1088/0954-3899/41/7/074001

Further explorations of Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov mass formulas. VII. Simultaneous fits to masses and fission barriers
journal, June 2007


New Fission Fragment Distributions and r -Process Origin of the Rare-Earth Elements
journal, December 2013


Parametric correlations in energy density functionals
journal, January 2020


Shell stabilization of super- and hyperheavy nuclei without magic gaps
journal, August 2001


Cranked relativistic Hartree–Bogoliubov theory: formalism and application to the superdeformed bands in the A∼190 region
journal, August 2000


Solution of the Skyrme HF+BCS equation on a 3D mesh
journal, September 2005


Extended systematics of alpha decay half lives for exotic superheavy nuclei
journal, July 2016


Fission properties for r -process nuclei
journal, February 2012


Fission barriers in a macroscopic-microscopic model
journal, February 2007


Fission barriers in covariant density functional theory: Extrapolation to superheavy nuclei
journal, February 2012


One-quasiparticle states in the nuclear energy density functional theory
journal, February 2010


Self-consistent mean-field models for nuclear structure
journal, January 2003

  • Bender, Michael; Heenen, Paul-Henri; Reinhard, Paul-Gerhard
  • Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 75, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.75.121

Nuclear landscape in covariant density functional theory
journal, November 2013


Relativistic field theory of superfluidity in nuclei
journal, March 1991

  • Kucharek, H.; Ring, P.
  • Zeitschrift f�r Physik A Hadrons and Nuclei, Vol. 339, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF01282930

Selected topics in nuclear astrophysics
journal, April 2008


The Ame2012 atomic mass evaluation
journal, December 2012


Assessing theoretical uncertainties in fission barriers of superheavy nuclei
journal, May 2017


Effect of time-odd mean fields on inertial parameters of the quadrupole collective Hamiltonian
journal, February 2012


Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
journal, October 2017


The role of fission in the r-process
journal, July 2007

  • Martínez-Pinedo, G.; Mocelj, D.; Zinner, N. T.
  • Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vol. 59, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ppnp.2007.01.018

Shell structure of superheavy nuclei in self-consistent mean-field models
journal, August 1999


Properties of nuclei in the nobelium region studied within the covariant, Skyrme, and Gogny energy density functionals
journal, December 2015


Nuclear systematics of the heavy elements—II Lifetimes for alpha, beta and spontaneous fission decay
journal, March 1966


Fission barriers in actinides in covariant density functional theory: The role of triaxiality
journal, October 2010


Global dynamical correlation energies in covariant density functional theory: Cranking approximation
journal, March 2014


Have superheavy elements been produced in nature?
journal, September 2012

  • Petermann, I.; Langanke, K.; Martínez-Pinedo, G.
  • The European Physical Journal A, Vol. 48, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1140/epja/i2012-12122-6

Alpha emission and spontaneous fission through quasi-molecular shapes
journal, June 2000


Non-axial shapes in spontaneous fission of superheavy nuclei
journal, May 1999


New parameterization of the effective field theory motivated relativistic mean field model
journal, October 2017


Nuclear processes in astrophysics: Recent progress
journal, December 2018


A finite range pairing force for density functional theory in superfluid nuclei
journal, June 2009


Time-odd mean fields in the rotating frame: Microscopic nature of nuclear magnetism
journal, August 2000


Deformed superheavy nuclei
journal, June 1989


Dynamical mass ejection from binary neutron star mergers: Radiation-hydrodynamics study in general relativity
journal, March 2015


Time-odd components in the mean field of rotating superdeformed nuclei
journal, October 1995


Time-dependent quantum collective dynamics applied to nuclear fission
journal, February 1991


Shape coexistence and triaxiality in the superheavy nuclei
journal, February 2005

  • Ćwiok, S.; Heenen, P. -H.; Nazarewicz, W.
  • Nature, Vol. 433, Issue 7027
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature03336

Systematics of fission barriers in superheavy elements
journal, January 2004


Heavy-element fission barriers
journal, June 2009


A new method to calculate magnetic moments in relativistic mean field theories
journal, November 1988


Pairing and rotational properties of actinides and superheavy nuclei in covariant density functional theory
journal, July 2013


Magic numbers for superheavy nuclei in relativistic continuum Hartree–Bogoliubov theory
journal, May 2005


Astronuclear Physics: A tale of the atomic nuclei in the skies
journal, May 2020


“Sloppy” nuclear energy density functionals. II. Finite nuclei
journal, May 2017


Time-odd mean fields in covariant density functional theory: Rotating systems
journal, September 2010


Relativistic mean field calculations with density-dependent meson-nucleon coupling
journal, September 1999


Relativistic calculation of nuclear matter and the nuclear surface
journal, December 1977


A chiral effective lagrangian for nuclei
journal, April 1997


Octupole deformation in the ground states of even-even Z 96 ,   N 196 actinides and superheavy nuclei
journal, August 2017


Neutron Star Mergers and Nucleosynthesis of Heavy Elements
journal, October 2017


GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
journal, October 2017


THE ROLE OF FISSION IN NEUTRON STAR MERGERS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE r -PROCESS PEAKS
journal, July 2015


Covariant energy density functionals: Nuclear matter constraints and global ground state properties
journal, May 2016


Colloquium : Superheavy elements: Oganesson and beyond
journal, January 2019


Covariant density functional theory: Reexamining the structure of superheavy nuclei
journal, November 2015


Hyperheavy nuclei: Existence and stability
journal, July 2018


Toroidal and spherical bubble nuclei
journal, May 1973


Nuclear robustness of the r process in neutron-star mergers
journal, November 2015

  • Mendoza-Temis, Joel de Jesús; Wu, Meng-Ru; Langanke, Karlheinz
  • Physical Review C, Vol. 92, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.92.055805

Microscopic theory of nuclear fission: a review
journal, October 2016


Octupole deformation in the ground states of even-even nuclei: A global analysis within the covariant density functional theory
journal, April 2016


Relativistic energy density functional description of shape transitions in superheavy nuclei
journal, August 2012


The limits of the nuclear landscape explored by the relativistic continuum Hartree–Bogoliubov theory
journal, May 2018


A relativistic description of rotating nuclei: The yrast line of 20Ne
journal, February 1989


Comprehensive nucleosynthesis analysis for ejecta of compact binary mergers
journal, February 2015

  • Just, O.; Bauswein, A.; Pulpillo, R. Ardevol
  • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 448, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv009

Relativistic nuclear energy density functionals: Adjusting parameters to binding energies
journal, September 2008


Multidimensionally-constrained relativistic mean-field models and potential-energy surfaces of actinide nuclei
journal, January 2014


Superheavy nuclei in a relativistic effective Lagrangian model
journal, April 2004


Relativistic mean-field hadronic models under nuclear matter constraints
journal, November 2014


Non-perturbative collective inertias for fission: A comparative study
journal, December 2018


Microscopic description of complex nuclear decay: Multimodal fission
journal, July 2009


r-process Calculations with a Microscopic Description of the Fission Process
journal, January 2017

  • Giuliani, S. A.; Martínez-Pinedo, G.; Robledo, L. M.
  • Acta Physica Polonica B, Vol. 48, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.5506/APhysPolB.48.299

Microscopic description of fission in superheavy nuclei with the parametrization D1M$$^{*}$$∗ of the Gogny energy density functional
journal, February 2020


Fission of Super-Heavy Nuclei Explored with Skyrme Forces
journal, April 2009

  • Schindzielorz, N.; Erler, J.; KlÜPfel, P.
  • International Journal of Modern Physics E, Vol. 18, Issue 04
  • DOI: 10.1142/S0218301309012860

Properties of nuclei in the nobelium region studied within the covariant, Skyrme, and Gogny energy density functionals
journal, December 2015


The effective force NL3 revisited
journal, January 2009


Nuclear landscape in covariant density functional theory
journal, November 2013


Relativistic Hartree?Bogoliubov theory: static and dynamic aspects of exotic nuclear structure
journal, April 2005


Large-scale fission-barrier calculations with the ETFSI method
journal, December 1998


Structure properties of even-even actinides
conference, January 2006


Weak-interaction processes in core-collapse supernovae
conference, January 2015


Error estimates of theoretical models: a guide
journal, May 2014

  • Dobaczewski, J.; Nazarewicz, W.; Reinhard, P-G
  • Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 41, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1088/0954-3899/41/7/074001

Comprehensive nucleosynthesis analysis for ejecta of compact binary mergers
journal, February 2015

  • Just, O.; Bauswein, A.; Pulpillo, R. Ardevol
  • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 448, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv009

New relativistic mean-field interaction with density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings
journal, February 2005


Effect of time-odd mean fields on inertial parameters of the quadrupole collective Hamiltonian
text, January 2012

  • P., Li, Z.; T., Nakatsukasa,; D., Vretenar,
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
  • DOI: 10.17615/pwym-bt76

Covariant density functional theory: Reexamining the structure of superheavy nuclei
text, January 2015


Neutron Star Mergers and Nucleosynthesis of Heavy Elements
text, January 2017


Nuclear processes in Astrophysics: Recent progress
text, January 2018