Nuclear isospin asymmetry in $\alpha$ decays of heavy nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates how nuclear isospin asymmetry influences alpha decay lifetimes in heavy nuclei using various phenomenological models, leading to improved theoretical predictions aligned with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces isospin asymmetry into nuclear potential models and modifies empirical formulas, enhancing the accuracy of alpha decay lifetime predictions for heavy and superheavy nuclei.

Findings

Including isospin effects improves decay lifetime predictions.

Models with isospin asymmetry match experimental data better.

Predictions for superheavy elements' decay lifetimes are provided.

Abstract

The effects of nuclear isospin asymmetry on $\alpha$ decay lifetimes of heavy nuclei are investigated within various phenomenological models of nuclear potential for the $\alpha$ particle. We consider the widely used simple square well potential and Woods-Saxon potential, and modify them by including an isospin asymmetry term. We then suggest a model for the potential of the $\alpha$ particle motivated by a microscopic phenomenological approach of the Skyrme force model, which naturally introduce the isospin dependent form of the nuclear potential for the $\alpha$ particle. The empirical $\alpha$ decay lifetime formula of Viola and Seaborg is also modified to include isospin asymmetry effects. The obtained $\alpha$ decay half-lives are in good agreement with the experimental data and we find that including the nuclear isospin effects somehow improves the theoretical results for $\alpha$ decay half-lives. The implications of these results are discussed and the predictions on the $\alpha$ decay lifetimes of superheavy elements are also presented.