Universal decay law in charged-particle emission and exotic cluster radioactivity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a universal decay law linking half-lives of charged-particle emissions to nuclear properties, generalizing the Geiger-Nuttall law and accurately explaining known cluster decays.

Contribution

It proposes a new linear decay formula derived from microscopic mechanisms that unifies various charged-particle emission processes under a single framework.

Findings

The decay law accurately describes all known cluster decays.

Predictions for likely cluster emissions are provided.

The formula generalizes the Geiger-Nuttall law for alpha decay.

Abstract

A linear universal decay formula is presented starting from the microscopic mechanism of the charged-particle emission. It relates the half-lives of monopole radioactive decays with the $Q$-values of the outgoing particles as well as the masses and charges of the nuclei involved in the decay. This relation is found to be a generalization of the Geiger-Nuttall law in $\alpha$ radioactivity and explains well all known cluster decays. Predictions on the most likely emissions of various clusters are presented.