Predicting decay pathways in superheavy nuclei: theoretical insights into $$\alpha$$ and cluster radioactivity

Abstract

Abstract We employ the density-dependent cluster model to calculate $$\alpha$$ -decay half-lives of recently synthesized superheavy nuclei (SHN) with $$Z=104$$ –118. A microscopic $$\alpha$$ –nucleus potential is derived via the double-folding method using a realistic nucleon–nucleon interaction. Within the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation, supplemented by the Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization condition, we extract both the $$\alpha$$ -particle assault frequency and barrier-penetration probability for spherical and deformed daughter configurations. Our predictions for five isotopes of the superheavy element $$Z=123$$ are benchmarked against several established models, demonstrating excellent agreement. We also explore the competition between $$\alpha$$ -decay and spontaneous fission, and propose likely decay chains for the as-yet unobserved nuclei $${}^{302\text {--}307}123$$ . Finally, cluster-decay channels of $${}^{300,303,306,307}123$$ are studied using the double-folding potential alongside the Universal curve (UNIV), the Universal Decay Law (UDL), the Unified Decay Formula (UDF), and Horoi’s approach. Notably, the UDL framework predicts positive branching ratios $$\log _{10}b_c$$ for heavy-cluster emission (e.g. $$^{90}\textrm{Sr}$$ , $$^{96}\textrm{Zr}$$ , $$^{102}\textrm{Mo}$$ ), indicating that such clusters may rival—or even dominate— $$\alpha$$ -decay in these SHN.