The stability and the shape of the heaviest nuclei

In this paper, we report a systematic study of the heaviest nuclei within the relativistic mean field (RMF) model. By comparing our results with those of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method (HFB) and the finite range droplet model (FRDM), the stability and the shape of the heaviest nuclei are discussed. The theoretical predictions as well as the existing experimental data indicate that the experimentally synthesized superheavy nuclei are in between the fission stability line, the line connecting the nucleus with maximum binding energy per nucleon in each isotopic chain, and the β-stability line, the line connecting the nucleus with maximum binding energy per nucleon in each isobaric chain. It is shown that both the fission stability line and the β-stability line tend to be more proton rich in the superheavy region. Meanwhile, all the three theoretical models predict most synthesized superheavy nuclei to be deformed.