Description of two-proton radioactivity on the basis of methods of the quantum theory of ternary nuclear fission

Abstract

The two-proton decay of spherical nuclei is investigated on the basis of the formalism developed in constructing the quantum-mechanical theory of ternary fission. The proposed method for determining the amplitudes of partial widths with respect to two-proton decay and the asymptotic behavior of the wave function for a decaying nucleus makes it possible to solve the problem of describing two-proton radioactivity without recourse to the traditionally used (in R-matrix approaches) cumbersome procedure of matching the internal and the external wave function for the decaying nucleus within the three-body formulation. In the diagonal approximation and with allowance for the properties of the potential describing the interaction of the products of two-proton decay, the structure of the wave function for the Cooper pair of two protons bound in the parent nucleus is analyzed, along with the behavior of the wave function describing the potential scattering of the products of binary decay, the coupling of decay channels being taken into account in this analysis.