Two Proton Emission in the Hyperspheric Harmonics Approach

Abstract

Nuclear decays into three-particle channels are considered in a few-body approach of hyperspherical harmonics with emphasis on simultaneous, or direct, emission of two protons. General conditions of direct decays are described and their main features, being experimentally established in decays of light nuclei, are reported. The analysis method based on an expansion of decay amplitude into a series of hyperspherical harmonics is reviewed. The basis of hyperspherical harmonics functions is a generalisation of the spherical function basis in three-body systems. The method is tested on analysis of the direct 2p-decay of Be^6 where the three-body components in the nuclear structure of Be^6 have been studied. In particular, the observed strong proton-proton correlations are treated as a manifestation of a specific three-body quantum effect: the kinematic focusing of fragments over momenta and in space. The hyperspherical harmonics method is applied for the predictions of proton-proton correlations and life-time estimates of the nuclei Mg^19, Ca^34 and Ni^48 - candidates for two-proton radioactivity. Each direct 2p-decay should result in a set of peaks in the E_(p-p) spectrum whose number and positions depend on the structure of initial nucleus, opposite to the diproton model, predicting the He^2 emission with one peak at E_(p-p)~0 in all cases.