Abstract. The stability of superheavy elements is discussed in the context of macroscopic features of continuous nuclear matter. An elastodynamic method is proposed to compute a regular (macroscopic) part of the potential-energy profile in the direction of quadrupole coordinate of symmetric fission. The distinguishing feature of this method is that the kinematics of nuclear deformation resulting in fission is described in terms of distortions of an elastic sphere and the dynamics is thought of as an adiabatic process dominated by disruptive elastic distortions caused by the volume Coulomb repulsion and cohesive surface elastic stresses of nuclear origin. The input parameters of the method are parameters of the nuclear binding energy, established in the macroscopic - microscopic theory of nuclear masses. From the elastic-globe model developed it follows that the magnitude of the macroscopic fission-barrier height for heaviest and superheavy elements with is expected to fall into the interval , respectively.

Print publication: Issue 1 (January 1998)
Received 4 July 1997, in final form 12 September 1997