The distribution of nuclei produced in the ⁴⁰Ar + ²³²Th reaction has been studied at the gas-filled recoil separator (SHANS2) at the China Accelerator Facility for Superheavy Elements (CAFE2). The bombardment was carried out at a beam energy of 205 MeV with the detection system installed at the focal plane. Forty-four isotopes heavier than ²⁰⁸Pb were observed. These isotopes were identified as the transfer reaction (or target-like) products, and their relative cross-sections were extracted. Based on the mass distribution of these products, we exclude the possibility that they were produced by fusion-fission reactions; thus, they may originate from quasi-fission of the ⁴⁰Ar + ²³²Th reaction.

Shape competition and coexistence between the pear- and the tetrahedral-shape octupole deformations in actinide nuclei is investigated by employing the realistic nuclear mean-field theory with the phenomenological, so-called 'universal' Woods-Saxon Hamiltonian with newly adjusted parameters containing no parametric correlations. Both types of octupole deformations exhibit significant effects in $ N=132 $, $ N=134 $, and $ N=136 $ isotones. Nuclear potential energy calculations within the multi-dimensional deformation spaces reveal that the tetrahedral deformation effects generally lead to deeper energy minima in most nuclei with $ N=134 $ and $ N=136 $. Interestingly, in the nuclei $^{218}_{\;\;86}{\rm{Rn}}_{132} $, $^{222}_{\;\;88}{\rm{Ra}}_{134} $, and $^{222}_{\;\;86}{\rm{Rn}}_{136} $, selected for the illustration of the studied effects, the influence of pear-shape octupole deformation is comparable to that of tetrahedral octupole deformation. Consequently, the coexistence of both kinds of octupole shapes is predicted by the potential energy calculations. In particular, we have reproduced the experimental results known for pear-shape rotational bands obtaining in this way an estimate of the quality of the modelling parametrisation. With the same Hamiltonian, we have predicted the properties of the tetrahedral symmetry rotational bands. To facilitate the possible experiment-theory cooperation we have derived the exact spin-parity tetrahedral-band structures by applying the standard methods of the group representation theory for the T_d point-group.

In the present work, based on a Gamow-like model, considering the deformation effect of Coulomb potential, where the effective nuclear radius constant is parameterized, we systematically investigate the cluster radioactivity half-lives of 25 trans-lead nuclei. For comparison, a universal decay law (UDL) proposed by Qi et al. [Phys. Rev. C 80, 044326 (2009)], a new semi-empirical formula for exotic cluster decay proposed by Balasubramaniam et al. [Phys. Rev. C 70, 017301 (2004)], and a scaling law proposed by Horoi [J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 30, 945 (2004)] are also used. The calculated results within the deformed Gamow-like model are in better agreement with the experimental half-lives. The deformation effect is also discussed within both the Gamow-like and deforemed Gamow-like models. Moreover, we extend this model to predict the cluster radioactivity half-lives of 49 nuclei whose decay energies are energetically allowed or observed but not yet quantified in NUBASE2020.