An interacting boson model of clustering in nuclei: α-like clustering in the heavy actinides

An interacting boson model of α-like clustering in nuclei is utilized for the study of the systematic trends of the data available for actinide nuclei. Most of the results presented here are for the well-deformed heavy actinides; however, some trends in going to the spherical region are studied. Tests, based on experimental data, are presented to discriminate between this and other models. The limit of the cluster model presented here satisfies all of the experimental tests found. This phenomenological study indicates that α-like clustering effects are adequate to describe the structure and dynamics of heavy actinide nuclei. (orig.)