Charged-Particle Radioactive Decays

Abstract

Stable atomic nuclei are characterized by an equilibrium of the number of protons and neutrons. If this equilibrium is perturbed, the nuclei become unstable and decay by a radioactive disintegration. These unstable nuclei can decay either by β decay – transforming a proton into a neutron or vice versa, followed in a lot of cases by the emission of nucleons – by emitting directly protons, neutrons, α particles, as well as heavier clusters of nucleons or by fission. In this chapter, we treat the radioactive decays, which take place on the proton-rich side of the chart of nuclei. Studying the diverse decay modes of these nuclei gives insights into their nuclear structure, the forces acting inside them, and thus the basic interaction (strong and weak) at work in an atomic nucleus. More than hundred years of nuclear physics have also shown us that, in order to understand the forces that act inside a nucleus, one has to study not only stable nuclei or nuclei close to stability but even more the most “exotic” of these nuclei, because a number of phenomena are amplified by the “exoticity” of the nuclear species.