Prediction of Alpha-Decay Half-Lives of Actinide Nuclei Using the DDM3Y Effective Interaction Potential

Abstract

The prediction of nuclear half-lives is vital for understanding nuclear stability with significant applications in astrophysics, nuclear energy, and medical physics. This study investigates the $α$-decay half-lives of 154 actinide nuclei in the atomic number range $89 \le Z \le 103$ using the Density-Dependent M3Y (DDM3Y) effective interaction potential. The theoretical framework utilizes a double-folding model where the densities of the $α$-particle and the daughter nucleus are folded to derive the nuclear interaction potential.Theoretical half-lives were calculated using the WKB approximation and compared against experimental data and established semi-empirical models, including the Viola-Seaborg (VSS), CPPM, GLDM, and ELDM frameworks. The DDM3Y model demonstrates a systematically improved agreement with experimental half-lives across the actinide series, effectively capturing the inverse correlation between $Q$-values and decay times. Statistical analysis yielded a standard deviation of 1.76, confirming the reliability of this approach for predicting the stability and decay properties of heavy and new isotopes.