Octupole deformation in neutron-rich actinides and superheavy nuclei and the role of nodal structure of single-particle wavefunctions in extremely deformed structures of light nuclei

Abstract

Octupole deformed shapes in neutron-rich actinides and superheavy nuclei as well as extremely deformed shapes of the N ~ Z light nuclei have been investigated within the framework of covariant density functional theory. We confirmed the presence of new region of octupole deformation in neutron-rich actinides with the center around Z ~ 96, N ~ 196 but our calculations do not predict octupole deformation in the ground states of superheavy Z> 108 nuclei. As exemplified by the study of 36Ar, the nodal structure of the wavefunction of occupied single-particle orbitals in extremely deformed structures allows to understand the formation of the α-clusters in very light nuclei, the suppression of the α-clusterization with the increase of mass number, the formation of ellipsoidal mean-field type structures and nuclear molecules