Synthesis of superheavy nuclei: How accurately can we describe it and calculate the cross sections?

A thorough analysis of all stages of heavy ion fusion reaction leading to the formation of a heavy evaporation residue has been performed. The main goal of the analysis was to gain better understanding of the whole process and to find out what factors and quantities, in particular, bring major uncertainty into the calculated cross sections, how reliable the calculation of the cross sections of superheavy element formation may be and what additional theoretical and experimental studies should be made in this field.