During the last decade, six new superheavy elements were added into the seventh period of the periodic table, with the approval of their names and symbols. This milestone was followed by proclaiming 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements by the United Nations General Assembly. According to theory, due to their large atomic numbers, the new arrivals are expected to be qualitatively and quantitatively different from lighter species. The questions pertaining to superheavy atoms and nuclei are in the forefront of research in nuclear and atomic physics, and chemistry. This Colloquium offers a broad perspective on the field and outlines future challenges. References

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The properties of dynamic (least action) fission paths are analyzed and compared to the ones of the more traditional static (least energy) paths. Both the BCPM and Gogny D1M energy density functionals are used in the calculation of the HFB constrained configurations providing the potential energy and collective inertias. The action is computed as in the WKB method. A full variational search of the least-action path over the complete variational space of HFB wave functions is cumbersome and probably unnecessary if the relevant degrees of freedom are identified. In this paper, we consider the particle number fluctuation degree of freedom that explores the amount of pairing correlations in the wave function. For a given shape, the minimum action can be up a factor of three smaller than the action computed for the minimum energy state with the same shape. The impact of this reduction on the lifetimes is enormous and dramatically improves the agreement with experimental data in the few examples considered.

Background: The chart of the nuclides is limited by particle drip lines beyond which nuclear stability to proton or neutron emission is lost. Predicting the range of particle-bound isotopes poses an appreciable challenge for nuclear theory as it involves extreme extrapolations of nuclear masses well beyond the regions where experimental information is available. Still, quantified extrapolations are crucial for a wide variety of applications, including the modeling of stellar nucleosynthesis.Purpose: We use microscopic nuclear global mass models, current mass data, and Bayesian methodology to provide quantified predictions of proton and neutron separation energies as well as Bayesian probabilities of existence throughout the nuclear landscape all the way to the particle drip lines. Methods:We apply nuclear density functional theory with several energy density functionals. We also consider two global mass models often used in astrophysical nucleosynthesis simulations. To account for uncertainties, Bayesian Gaussian processes are trained on the separation-energy residuals for each individual model, and the resulting predictions are combined via Bayesian model averaging. This framework allows to account for systematic and statistical uncertainties and propagate them to extrapolative predictions. Results:We establish and characterize the drip-line regions where the probability that the nucleus is particlebound decreases from 1 to 0. In these regions, we provide quantified predictions for one-and two-nucleon separation energies. According to our Bayesian model averaging analysis, 7759 nuclei with Z ≤ 119 have a probability of existence ≥ 0.5. Conclusions:The extrapolation results obtained in this study will be put through stringent tests when new experimental information on existence and masses of exotic nuclei becomes available. In this respect, the quantified landscape of nuclear existence obtained in this study should be viewed as a dynamical prediction that will be fine-tuned when new experimental information and improved global mass models become available.

There has been much recent interest in nuclear fission, due in part to a new appreciation of its relevance to astrophysics, stability of superheavy elements, and fundamental theory of neutrino interactions. At the same time, there have been important developments on a conceptual and computational level for the theory. The promising new theoretical avenues were the subject of a workshop held at the University of York in October 2019; this report summarises its findings and recommendations.

We computed a new set of static fission properties suited for r-process calculations. The potential energy surfaces and collective inertias of 3640 nuclei in the superheavy region are obtained from Self-Consistent Mean-Field calculations using the Barcelona-Catania-Paris-Madrid energy density functional. The fission path is computed as a function of the quadrupole moment by minimizing the potential energy and exploring octupole and hexadecapole deformations. The spontaneous fission lifetimes are evaluated employing different schemes for the collective inertias and vibrational energy corrections. This allows to explore the sensitivity of the lifetimes to those quantities together with the collective ground state energy along the superheavy landscape. We computed neutron induced stellar reaction rates relevant for r-process nucleosynthesis using the Hauser-Feshbach statistical approach and study the impact of collective inertias. The competition between different reaction channels including neutron induced rates, spontaneous fission and alpha decay is discussed for typical r-process conditions.

Background: The limits of the nuclear landscape are determined by nuclear binding energies. Beyond the proton drip lines, where the separation energy becomes negative, there is not enough binding energy to prevent protons from escaping the nucleus. Predicting properties of unstable nuclear states in the vast territory of proton emitters poses an appreciable challenge for nuclear theory as it often involves far extrapolations. In addition, significant discrepancies between nuclear models in the proton-rich territory call for quantified predictions.Purpose: With the help of Bayesian methodology, we mix a family of nuclear mass models corrected with statistical emulators trained on the experimental mass measurements, in the proton-rich region of the nuclear chart.Methods: Separation energies were computed within nuclear density functional theory using several Skyrme and Gogny energy density functionals. We also considered mass predictions based on two models used in astrophysical studies. Quantified predictions were obtained for each model using Bayesian Gaussian processes trained on separation-energy residuals and combined via Bayesian model averaging. Results:We obtained a good agreement between averaged predictions of statistically corrected models and experiment. In particular, we quantified model results for one-and two-proton separation energies and derived probabilities of proton emission. This information enabled us to produce a quantified landscape of proton-rich nuclei. The most promising candidates for two-proton decay studies have been identified. Conclusions:The methodology used in this work has broad applications to model-based extrapolations of various nuclear observables. It also provides a reliable uncertainty quantification of theoretical predictions.

According to theory, cluster radioactivity becomes an important decay mode in superheavy nuclei. In this work, we predict that the strongly-asymmetric fission, or cluster emission, is in fact the dominant fission channel for 294 118 Og176, which is currently the heaviest synthetic isotope known. Our theoretical approach incorporates important features of fission dynamics, including quantum tunneling and stochastic dynamics up to scission. We show that, despite appreciable differences in static fission properties such as fission barriers and spontaneous fission lifetimes, the prediction of cluster radioactivity in 294 118 Og176 is robust with respect to the details of calculations, including the choice of energy density functional, collective inertia, and the strength of the dissipation term.