Exploring the sensitivity of a-decay half-life to neutron skin thickness for nuclei around ²⁰⁸Pb

Based on the newest experimentally extracted nuclear density distributions for double-magic nucleus ²⁰⁸Pb (Terabit et al. in Phys Rev Lett 112:242502, 2014), the sensitivity of a-decay half-life to nuclear skin thickness is explored in the vicinity of the shell closure region around ²⁰⁸Pb, i.e., isotopes of Z = 82 and isotones of N = 126. With the two-parameter Fermi (2PF) density distributions and an analytically derived formula, the a-decay half-life is found to be closely related to the magnitude of nuclear skin thickness. For a decays to the Z = 82 isotopes, the a-decay half-life is found to decrease with the increasing neutron skin thickness, while the opposite behavior is found for a decays to the N = 126 isotones. Therefore, it could be a possible way to extract the nuclear skin thickness from measured a-decay half-lives. (authors)