Pauli-principle driven correlations in four-neutron nuclear decays

Abstract

Mechanism of simultaneous non-sequential four-neutron ($4n$) emission (or `true' $4n$-decay) has been considered in phenomenological five-body approach. This approach is analogous to the model of the direct decay to the continuum often applied to $2n$- and $2p$-decays. It is demonstrated that $4n$-decay fragments should have specific energy and angular correlations reflecting strong spatial correlations of `valence' nucleons orbiting in their $4n$-precursors. Due to the Pauli exclusion principle, the valence neutrons are pushed to the symmetry-allowed configurations in the $4n$-precursor structure, which causes a `Pauli focusing' effect. Prospects of the observation of the Pauli focusing have been considered for the $4n$-precursors ${}^7$H and ${}^{28}$O. Fingerprints of their nuclear structure or/and decay dynamics are predicted.

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Particle decays of levels in ${}^{11,12}$N and ${}^{12}$O investigated with the invariant-mass method
• Observation of the ${}^7$H excited state
• Resonant states in ${}^7$H. I. Experimental studies of the ${}^2$H(${}^8$He,${}^3$He) reaction