Superheavy Nuclei and the Changing Face of Nuclear Magicity

Using a relativistic mean field formalism, we analyzed the magic number sequence for finite nuclei in the superheavy valley. The result for the IOPB-I parameter set is compared with the well-known NL3 force. The magic numbers obtained from IOPB-I and NL3 interactions are found to be similar. Analysing the single-particle levels and the number of nucleons occupied in it, we find the close shell sequence as 2, 8, 18, 34, 50, 58, 80, 82, 92, 114, 120, 120, 138, 164, 172, 184 and 198 for the $^{318}{120}$ mass region. Again, with a careful inspection, we noticed large shell gaps at nucleon numbers 2, 8, 18, 34, 50, 58, 80, 92, 120, 138, 164, 172, 184, and 198, which may be considered as the magic number sequence for the superheavy nuclei. This change may be due to the shape change of the nuclear potential as compared to the stability valley.