The most important theoretical developments leading to the current understanding of heavy-element stability : With some personal recollections from the past 55 years (1965–2020)
We discuss the sequence of developments that over the past 90 years led to current insights on heavy-element stability. The semi-empirical mass model, and its extension to deformed shapes, developed in the period 1936–1950 allowed the interpretation of nuclear fission. Around 1950 the spherical single-particle model was developed, soon after with extension to deformed nuclei. Speculations about a
