α decay half-lives of new superheavy elements

The lifetimes of α decays of the recently produced isotopes of elements 112, 114, 116, and ${}^{294}118$ and of some decay products are calculated theoretically within the WKB approximation by use of microscopic α-nucleus interaction potentials. We obtain these nuclear potentials by folding the densities of the α and the daughter nuclei with the M3Y effective interaction, supplemented by a zero-range pseudopotential for exchange along with the density dependence. Spherical charge distributions are used for calculating the Coulomb interaction potentials. These calculations provide reasonable estimates for the observed α decay lifetimes and thus provide reliable predictions for other superheavies.