Abstract
Recent -decay data of heavy nuclei are collected and systematic analysis shows that there is a sudden change between the logarithm of decay half-life and the reciprocal of the square root of decay energy across the shell closure. In order to reproduce this sudden change, the new Geiger-Nuttall law is proposed where the effects of the quantum numbers of -core relative motion are naturally embedded in the law. The remedy achieved by a very simple parametrization of these effects is remarkable. By adding terms to the Geiger-Nuttall law, the parameters in the formula of decay half-lives need not be changed, except for some odd nuclei. This is an important development to the original Geiger-Nuttall law, which is valid for the ground-state transitions of even-even nuclei with . The law is generalized to the favored and hindered transitions of the nuclei and of high-spin isomers. The results of this article point to the simplicity of the underlying mechanism of the decay.
- Received 12 February 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.85.044608
©2012 American Physical Society