Abstract
In this study, the effect of extreme laser fields on the \(\alpha\) decay process of ground-state even–even nuclei was investigated. Using the deformed Gamow-like model, we found that state-of-the-art lasers can cause a slight change in the \(\alpha\) decay penetration probability of most nuclei. In addition, we studied the correlation between the rate of change of the \(\alpha\) decay penetration probability and angle between the directions of the laser electric field and \(\alpha\) particle emission for different nuclei. Based on this correlation, the average effect of extreme laser fields on the half-life of many nuclei with arbitrary \(\alpha\) particle emission angles was calculated. The calculations show that the laser suppression and promotion effects on the \(\alpha\) decay penetration probability of the nuclei population with completely random \(\alpha\) particle-emission directions are not completely canceled. The remainder led to a change in the average penetration probability of the nuclei. Furthermore, the possibility of achieving a higher average rate of change by altering the spatial shape of the laser is explored. We conclude that circularly polarized lasers may be helpful in future experiments to achieve a more significant average rate of change of the \(\alpha\) decay half-life of the nuclei population.
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Data availibility
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Science Data Bank at https://cstr.cn/31253.11.sciencedb.j00186.00358 and .
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We thank Prof. Xiao-Hua Li and Dr. Hai-Feng Gui for useful discussions.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Qiong Xiao, Jun-Hao Cheng, Yang-Yang Xu and You-Tian Zou. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Qiong Xiao and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12375244, 12135009), the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (No. 2020RC4020), and the Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation for Postgraduate (No. CX20210007), Natural Science Research Project of Yichang City (No. A23-2-028).
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Xiao, Q., Cheng, JH., Xu, YY. et al. α Decay in extreme laser fields within a deformed Gamow-like model. NUCL SCI TECH 35, 27 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-024-01371-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-024-01371-y