Superheavy nuclei and giant quasi-atoms

Dynamics of heavy-ion low energy collisions is studied within the realistic model based on multi-dimensional Langevin equations. Symmetric and asymmetric fusion reactions leading to formation of superheavy nuclei are analyzed. Collisions of transactinide nuclei are investigated as an alternative way for production of neutron-rich superheavy elements. In many events lifetime of the composite giant system consisting of two touching nuclei turns out to be rather long (⩾10−20 s); sufficient for observing line structure in spontaneous positron emission from super-strong electric fields, a fundamental QED process.