Fission barriers from multidimensionally-constrained covariant density functional theories

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Frontiers in Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
² Institut für Kernphysik (IKP-3) and Jülich Center for Hadron Physics, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
³ Microsystem and Terahertz Research Center, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Chengdu 610200, China
⁴ Center of Theoretical Nuclear Physics, National Laboratory of Heavy Ion Accelerator, Lanzhou 730000, China
⁵ School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
⁶ Synergetic Innovation Center for Quantum Effects and Application, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China

^* e-mail: sgzhou@itp.ac.cn

Published online: 22 November 2017

Abstract

In recent years, we have developed the multidimensionally-constrained covariant density functional theories (MDC-CDFTs) in which both axial and spatial reflection symmetries are broken and all shape degrees of freedom described by β_λμ with even μ, such as β₂₀, β₂₂, β₃₀, β₃₂, β₄₀, etc., are included self-consistently. The MDC-CDFTs have been applied to the investigation of potential energy surfaces and fission barriers of actinide nuclei, third minima in potential energy surfaces of light actinides, shapes and potential energy surfaces of superheavy nuclei, octupole correlations between multiple chiral doublet bands in ⁷⁸Br, octupole correlations in Ba isotopes, the Y₃₂ correlations in N = 150 isotones and Zr isotopes, the spontaneous fission of Fm isotopes, and shapes of hypernuclei. In this contribution we present the formalism of MDC-CDFTs and the application of these theories to the study of fission barriers and potential energy surfaces of actinide nuclei.