Abstract
The quenching of the experimental spectroscopic factor for proton emission from the short-lived d3/2 isomeric state in 151mLu was a long-standing problem. In the present work, proton emission from this isomer has been reinvestigated in an experiment at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä. The proton-decay energy and half-life of this isomer were measured to be 1295(5) keV and 15.4(8) μs, respectively, in agreement with another recent study. These new experimental data can resolve the discrepancy in the spectroscopic factor calculated using the spherical WKB approximation. Using the R-matrix approach it is found that the proton formation probability indicates no significant hindrance for the proton decay of 151mLu.
Highlights
Proton emission is a quantum tunneling process in which the escaping proton penetrates through a potential barrier consisting of Coulomb and centrifugal potentials
The calculated proton half-life t1p/2 can be obtained using the WKB approximation and has a very strong dependence on the proton-decay energy, the orbital angular momentum carried by the emitting proton as well as the effective single-particle potential and the corresponding initial single-proton wave function used in the calculation
One can assert that the way one extracts the experimental spectroscopic factor is an effective theory since one has to introduce an effective single-proton potential to mimic the motion of the decaying proton inside the nucleus
Summary
Proton emission is a quantum tunneling process in which the escaping proton penetrates through a potential barrier consisting of Coulomb and centrifugal potentials. It provides a microscopic scheme to extract the experimental proton formation amplitude at the nuclear surface in a model independent way [17] In this scheme, as will be illustrated, the proton decay process can be evaluated in two steps: the inner process which describes the dynamic motion of the proton inside the nucleus and the possibility for it to be emitted, and the outer process which describes the penetration of the proton through the barrier. The latter part of the inner process corresponds to the proton formation amplitude that reflects the overlap between the parent and daughter wave functions, from which one can distinguish the role played by deformation and pairing on the decay process This scheme avoids the ambiguities of the deduced spectroscopic factor in relation to the surface effects and quantifies in a more precise manner the nuclear many-body structure effects. The proton formation probability extracted from the present results indicates no significant hindrance for the proton decay of 151mLu
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