Many shape degrees of freedom play crucial roles in determining properties of the nuclear ground state and saddle point and the fission path of heavy and superheavy nuclei. For the study of nuclear potential energy surfaces, it is desirable to have microscopic and self-consistent models in which all known important shape degrees of freedom are included. By breaking both the axial and the spatial reflection symmetries simultaneously, we developed multidimensionally-constrained covariant density functional theories (MDC-CDFTs). The MDC-CDFT's have been applied to the study of fission barriers and potential energy surfaces of actinide nuclei, third minima in potential energy surfaces of light actinides, shapes and potential energy surfaces of superheavy nuclei, the tetrahedral correlations in N=150 isotones and Zr isotopes, and the shape of hypernuclei. In this talk I will introduce MDC-CDFT's and recent applications on nuclear shapes and fission barriers of heavy and superheavy nuclei.

Argonne Physics Division Seminar Schedule