New recent experimental α decay half-lives have been compared with the results obtained from previously proposed formulas depending only on the mass and charge numbers of the α emitter and the $Q_{\alpha }$ value. For the heaviest nuclei they are also compared with calculations using the Density-Dependent M3Y (DDM3Y) effective interaction and the Viola-Seaborg-Sobiczewski (VSS) formulas. The correct agreement allows us to make predictions for the α decay half-lives of other still unknown superheavy nuclei from these analytic formulas using the extrapolated $Q_{\alpha }$ of G. Audi, A. H. Wapstra, and C. Thibault [Nucl. Phys. A729, 337 (2003)].

• Received 28 January 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.77.037602