We investigate the influence of the tensor component of the Skyrme interaction on $\alpha$ clustering and $\alpha$ decay in heavy nuclei within the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov framework. Ground-state-to-ground-state $\alpha$ decays in even-even Po, Rn, and Ra isotopes are treated microscopically using the formalism proposed by Ward et al. [Phys. Rev. C 88, 064316 (2013)]. By comparing calculations with and without the tensor force, we find that the tensor interaction significantly improves the description of the relative $\alpha$-decay rates by better reproducing the shell evolution of the reduced widths across the $N=126$ shell closure. A microscopic analysis shows that the tensor force modifies the spin-orbit splittings and rearranges single-particle orbitals near the Fermi surface, which in turn changes the pairing correlations and the $\alpha$-cluster formation probability. Although the tensor interaction does not remove the underestimation of the absolute decay widths within the present mean-field framework, it plays an important role in capturing the systematic trends of $\alpha$ clustering in heavy nuclei.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Alpha decay
• Models & methods for nuclear reactions
• Nuclear forces
• Nuclear structure & decays