LAUSR

α-decay half-lives of superheavy nuclei have been studied using modified Gamow-like model and improved empirical formulas. The empirical formulas used in the study are Viola-Seaborg semi-empirical formula, universal decay law (UDL), Denisov-Khudenko formula (DK), Royer formula, Wang formula, AKRE formula, and new Ren B (NRB) formula. New values of the adjustable parameters in the modified Gamow-like model have been obtained using a least square fit scheme and input data from the NUBASE2020 database. We found that only two adjustable parameters are sufficient to describe the α-decay half-lives of heavy and superheavy nuclei. We also obtained new coefficients for the seven empirical formulas using similar procedure. The modified Gamow-like model (MGLM) and improved empirical formulas are then used to calculate the α-decay half-lives of measured superheavy nuclei with Z = 100–118. The calculated root mean square errors indicate that the Royer, DK, and AKRE formulas are the best three empirical formulas for evaluating the α-decay half-lives of the superheavy nuclei. The five best performing empirical formulas, together with the MGLM, are then used to predict alpha-decay half-lives of unmeasured even–even superheavy nuclei with Z = 120–126. The Q α values used for the predictions have been taken from the tabulated Weizs ä cker-Skyrme-4 + RBF (WS4 + RBF) Q α values. The theoretical calculations suggest that N = 184 is a possible magic number, which is in agreement with previous theoretical calculations.