Two-proton radioactivity and three-body decay. V. Improved momentum distributions

Journal article, 2010

Nowadays quantum-mechanical theory allows one to reliably calculate the processes of 2p radioactivity (true three-body decays) and the corresponding energy and angular correlations up to distances of the order of 10(3) fm. However, the precision of modern experiments has now become sufficient to indicate some deficiency of the predicted theoretical distributions. In this paper we discuss extrapolation along the classical trajectories as a method to improve the convergence of the theoretical energy and angular correlations at very large distances (of the order of atomic distances), where only long-range Coulomb forces are still operating. The precision of this approach is demonstrated using the "exactly" solvable semianalytical models with simplified three-body Hamiltonians. It is also demonstrated that for heavy 2p emitters, the 2p decay momentum distributions can be sensitive to the effect of screening by atomic electrons. We compare theoretical results with available experimental data.