Reduced width in cluster emission processes

We analyze cluster emission processes, including α-decay, in terms of the well known factorisation between penetrability and reduced width. An analytic linear relation between the reduced width and the fragmentation potential, defined as the difference between the Coulomb barrier and Q-value, is derived. This simple relation is fulfilled by the available experimental data within two orders of magnitudes, if one uses a common set of parameters for all heavy cluster decays. (authors)