Two-proton emission and related phenomena

Abstract

One of characteristic phenomena for nuclei beyond the proton dripline is the simultaneous emission of two protons (2\emph{p}). The current status of our knowledge of this most recently observed and the least known decay mode is presented. First, different approaches to theoretical description of this process, ranging from effective approximations to advanced three-body models are overviewed. Then, after a brief survey of main experimental methods to produce 2\emph{p}-emitting nuclei and techniques to study their decays, experimental findings in this research field are presented and discussed. This review covers decays of short-lived resonances and excited states of unbound nuclei as well as longer-lived, ground-state radioactive decays. In addition, more exotic decays like three- and four-proton emission are addressed. Finally, related few-body topics, like two-neutron and four-neutron radioactivity, and the problem of the tetraneutron are shortly discussed.