Problem of Nuclear Decay by Proton Emission in Fully Quantum Consideration: Calculations of Penetrability and Role of Boundary Conditions

Sergei P Maydanyuk, Sergei V Belchikov

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DOI: 10.4236/jmp.2011.26067                

Abstract

We develop a new fully quantum method for determination of widths for nuclear decay by proton emission where multiple internal reflections of wave packet describing tunneling process inside proton-nucleus radial barrier are taken into account. Exact solutions for amplitudes of wave function, penetrability T and reflection R (estimated for the first time for decay problem) are found for n -step barrier (at arbitrary n) which approximates the realistic barrier. In contrast to semiclassical approach and two-potential approach, we establish by this method essential dependence of the penetrability on the starting point R_form in the internal well where proton starts to move outside (for example, for Ta the penetrability is changed up to 200 times; accuracy is T+R-1|<1.5.10^-15 ). We impose a new condition: in the beginning of the proton decay the proton starts to move outside from minimum of the well. Such a condition provides minimal calculated half-life and gives stable basis for predictions. However, the half-lives calculated by such an approach turn out to be a little closer to experimental data in comparison with the semiclassical half-lives. Estimated influence of the external barrier region is up to 1.5 times for changed penetrability.

Keywords

Tunneling, Multiple Internal Reflections, Wave Packet, Decay by Proton Emission, Penetrability and Reflection, Half-Life

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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