Modes of decay in neutron-rich nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates decay modes of neutron-rich thorium and uranium isotopes using relativistic mean field calculations, revealing stability against alpha decay but high instability against beta decay with predicted lifetimes of tens of seconds.

Contribution

It applies the relativistic mean field approach to analyze decay modes and stability of neutron-rich actinides, providing new insights into their decay characteristics.

Findings

Neutron-rich isotopes are stable against alpha decay.

They are highly unstable against beta decay.

Predicted lifetimes are on the order of tens of seconds.

Abstract

We calculate the ground, first intrinsic excited states and density distribution for neutron-rich thorium and uranium isotopes, within the framework of relativistic mean field(RMF) approach using axially deformed basis. The total nucleon densities are calculated, from which the cluster-structures inside the parent nuclei are determined. The possible modes of decay, like {\alpha}-decay and \b{eta} -decay are analyzed. We find the neutron-rich isotopes are stable against {\alpha}-decay, however they are very much unstable against \b{eta} -decay. The life time of these nuclei predicted to be tens of second against \b{eta} -decay.