Proton radioactivity in deformed nuclei with microscopic optical potential: a novel angular-dependent emission mechanism in the nanosecond-emitter $^{149}$Lu

TL;DR

This paper provides a microscopic theoretical framework for proton radioactivity in deformed nuclei, predicting a novel angular-dependent emission mechanism and accurately estimating half-lives, thereby validating the use of microscopic optical potentials for exotic decay predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic optical potential approach for deformed nuclei, revealing a new angular-dependent emission phenomenon and accurately predicting half-lives of proton emitters.

Findings

Predicted a novel angular-dependent emission mechanism at small polar angles.

Achieved excellent agreement between calculated and experimental half-lives for $^{149}$Lu and neighboring isotopes.

Identified deformation constraints and predicted new proton emitter $^{148}$Lu with specific half-life.

Abstract

We present the first microscopic description of proton radioactivity in $^{149}$Lu, the most oblate deformed proton emitter known, using a deformed microscopic optical potential derived from $ab\ initio$ nuclear matter calculations. We predict a novel angular-dependent phenomenon unprecedented in spherical proton emitters: the disappearance of classically allowed regions at small polar angles $(\theta\leq 21^\circ)$. Combining the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin penetration probabilities and the assault frequency of the emitted proton estimated with a new harmonic-oscillator-inspired scheme, our framework yields a half-life $T_{1/2}=467^{+143}_{-108}$ ns for $^{149}$Lu, in excellent agreement within uncertainties with the experimental value $450^{+170}_{-100}$ ns. Deformation analysis rigorously excludes configurations with $|\beta_2|\geq 0.32$. Extensions to $^{150, 151}$Lu and their isomers also achieve excellent agreement with experimental half-life data. We further predict $^{148}$Lu as another highly oblate $(\beta_2 = -0.166)$ proton emitter with a half-life of 4.42 ns. This work validates deformed microscopic optical potentials as a robust predictive tool for drip-line proton emitters and provides quantitative evidence for deformation effects in exotic decays.