Role of pairing degrees of freedom and higher multipolarity deformations in spontaneous fission process

Spontaneous fission (T-sf) and alpha-decay half-lives (T-alpha) of the heav iest nuclei with atomic number 100 less than or equal to Z less than or equ al to 114 are calculated on the basis of the deformed Woods-Saxon potential . The calculations of (T-sf) are performed by the WKB approximation, in the multi-dimensional dynamical-programing method (MDP). We have examined three different effects: the effect of higher even-multipo larity shape parameters (beta(6) and beta(8)), the role of reflection-asymm etry (beta(3) and beta(5)) and the influence of pairing degrees of freedom (Delta(p) and Delta(n)). Alpha-decay half-lives (T-alpha) have been calculated by the Viola-Seaborg (V-S) formula with the parameters modified to the latest experimental data, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.