Cluster emission from superheavy nuclei

The process leading to cluster emission from superheavy nuclei in the range \( 100\le Z\le 122\) has been systematically investigated. This topic is of importance because it opens up the possibility of identifying superheavy elements through deposition of clusters in the detection system. In this paper we evaluate the cluster decay half lives by considering the cluster as a particle. The motion of this particle in the field induced by the daughter nucleus is determined by solving the corresponding Schrodinger equation imposing outgoing boundary conditions (Gamow state). The corresponding Wood-Saxon potential is fitted to obtain the energies provided by a mass formula that has been established recently to have a very high degree of precision. The resulting expression for the decay width is exact, i.e. no approximation besides the assumption of a preformed cluster is introduced. It is found that the heavy cluster emission probability in the superheavy region is much smaller than the corresponding \( \alpha\) emission probability.