Role of 208Pb daughter nucleus and nuclear shell effects in trans‐lead cluster radioactivity by emission of neon clusters from 218–236U isotopes

In the present work, the cluster radioactivity of even A uranium isotopes (^218–236U) with the emission of both alpha‐like and non‐alpha‐like neon clusters (^{20,22,24,26,28}Ne) was studied. The decimal logarithm of half‐lives (expressed in seconds) were calculated by three different approaches based on (i) the single line of Universal curve (UNIV) for alpha and cluster radioactive decay, (ii) the Universal Decay law (UDL) and (iii) by considering a fission‐like model in which the interacting nuclear potential barrier was taken to be the sum of Coulomb and proximity potentials (CPPM) respectively. Based on the half‐lives calculated by using the three different approaches mentioned above, significance of the role of ²⁰⁸Pb nucleus (doubly magic nucleus) and nuclear shell effects in trans‐lead cluster radioactivity were investigated. The calculated half‐lives have also been compared with available experimental results. It was observed that cluster decay modes leading to the formation of ²⁰⁸Pb daughter nucleus have the lowest half‐lives. This implies that there is a shell closure at proton number (Z) = 82 and neutron number (N) = 126. Hence, it confirms the existence of nuclear shell effect and stresses the significance of role of ²⁰⁸Pb daughter nucleus in the trans‐lead cluster radioactivity. It can be noticed that the calculated half‐lives for several cluster decay modes are well within the present experimental upper limit for measurements (T_1/2 < 10³⁰S). These results may be useful for future experiments.