Absolute Alpha-decay Rates in Po Isotopes

Journal article, 1985

Absolute a-decay widths in Po isotopes are studied in terms of a correlated basis consisting of two-particle (physical) states. It is found that the neutron-neutron, proton-proton and neutron-proton pairing interactions play a fundamental role in clustering the neutrons and protons that eventually constitute the alpha-particle. As a result, the calculated alpha-decay widths are enhanced by several orders of magnitude by properly including the pairing interaction. Reasonable agreement with available experimental data is obtained.