Impact of nuclear structure on production of superheavy nuclei

The calculations performed with the modified two-center shell model reveal quite strong shell effects at Z 120 – 126 and N 184 as in the self-consistent mean-field treatments. If our prediction of the structure of heaviest nuclei is correct, than one can expect the production of evaporation residues Z 120 in the reactions50Ti+249Cf and 54Cr+248Cm in near future. The nuclear level densities were calculated for the nuclei of a-decay chains containing 296,298,300120. The minima of the level density parameter clearly indicate the strong shell effect at Z 120.