Nuclear β-decay half-lives in the relativistic point-coupling model

The self-consistent proton–neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation approach is employed to calculate β-decay half-lives of neutron-rich even–even nuclei with $8⩽Z⩽30$. A newly proposed nonlinear point-coupling effective interaction PC-PK1 is used in the calculations. It is found that the isoscalar proton–neutron pairing interaction can significantly reduce β-decay half-lives. With an isospin-dependent isoscalar proton–neutron pairing strength, our results well reproduce the experimental β-decay half-lives, although the pairing strength is not adjusted using the half-lives calculated in this study. (paper)