Relativistic energy density functional description of shape transitions in superheavy nuclei

Relativistic energy density functionals (REDF) provide a complete and accurate global description of nuclear structure phenomena. A modern semiempirical functional, adjusted to the nuclear matter equation of state and to empirical masses of deformed nuclei, is applied to studies of shapes of superheavy nuclei. The theoretical framework is tested in a comparison of calculated masses, quadrupole deformations, and potential energy barriers to available data on actinide isotopes. Self-consistent mean-field calculations predict a variety of spherical, axial, and triaxial shapes of long-lived superheavy nuclei, and their α-decay energies and half-lives are compared to data. A microscopic, REDF-based, quadrupole collective Hamiltonian model is used to study the effect of explicit treatment of collective correlations in the calculation of Q_α values and half-lives.