Nuclear $\beta$-decay half-lives in the relativistic point-coupling model

TL;DR

This paper employs a relativistic point-coupling model with a new effective interaction to accurately predict $eta$-decay half-lives of neutron-rich nuclei, highlighting the importance of isoscalar proton-neutron pairing.

Contribution

It introduces the PC-PK1 nonlinear point-coupling interaction and demonstrates its effectiveness in modeling $eta$-decay half-lives with an isospin-dependent pairing approach.

Findings

Isoscalar proton-neutron pairing significantly reduces half-lives.

Results align well with experimental data without adjusting pairing strength.

The model effectively predicts $eta$-decay half-lives across studied nuclei.

Abstract

The self-consistent proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation approach is employed to calculate $\beta$-decay half-lives of neutron-rich even-even nuclei with $8\leqslant Z \leqslant 30$. A newly proposed nonlinear point-coupling effective interaction PC-PK1 is used in the calculations. It is found that the isoscalar proton-neutron pairing interaction can significantly reduce $\beta$-decay half-lives. With an isospin-dependent isoscalar proton-neutron pairing strength, our results well reproduce the experimental $\beta$-decay half-lives, although the pairing strength is not adjusted using the half-lives calculated in this study.