[Submitted on 20 Aug 2026]
Proton emission half-lives and shape coexistence for odd- nuclei
Yongbeom Choi · Chang-Hwan Lee · Youngman Kim
One-proton emission is a direct probe of nuclear structure near the proton drip line and plays a critical role in understanding exotic decay modes and nucleosynthesis processes. In this study, we investigate the half-lives of one-proton emitters for odd- nuclei by employing the WKB approximation with nuclear potentials obtained from the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc) and, for comparison, the relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov theory (RCHB). We first compare the calculated half-lives with available experimental data. The inclusion of quadrupole deformation via the DRHBc hardly contributes to improving the predictions of half-lives for the deformed nuclei. We find that all the studied nuclei exhibit ground states with , and within this limited deformation range the spectroscopic factor provides the dominant contribution to the half-life, compared to the decay width. In particular, for nuclei exhibiting shape coexistence in DRHBc, such as Au, where the half-life varies significantly with the quadrupole deformation through its effect on the spectroscopic factor, we expect shape coexistence to exert a substantial influence on the variation of half-lives. Finally, we discuss the half-lives in consideration of shape coexistence. Our results indicate that the calculated half-life is governed not by the total-energy difference between coexisting minima but rather by the spectroscopic factor influenced by the deformation.
- Subjects:
- Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
- arXiv:
- 2608.19601 [pdf]