Cluster radioactivity and very asymmetric fission through compact and creviced shapes

Abstract

The decay of radioactive nuclei which emit heavy clusters such as C, O, Ne, Mg and Si has been studied in the fission valley which leads one spherical nucleus towards two spherical touching nuclei before crossing the barrier. Assuming volume conservation, the macroscopic deformation energy has been calculated within a generalized liquid-drop model taking into account the proximity effects between the cluster and the daughter nucleus. The microscopic corrections have been introduced empirically to reproduce the experimental Q values. The theoretical partial half-lives obtained within the WKB barrier penetration probability are in good agreement with the experimental data. The C, O, Ne, Mg and Si emission looks like a spontaneous fission through very asymmetric compact and creviced shapes formed at the early stage of the tunneling process.