Optimisation of a hybrid photoneutron source in a linear accelerator using GEANT4 and MCNPX Monte Carlo codes

The (alpha ) decay half-lives of hyper and normal isotopes of Po nuclei are studied in the present work. The inclusion of (Lambda )–N interaction changes the half-life for (alpha ) decay. The theoretical predictions on the (alpha ) decay half-lives of normal Po isotopes are compared with experimental results and are seen to be matching well with each other. The neutron shell closure at (N = 126) is found to be the same for both normal and hypernuclei. The Geiger–Nuttal (G–N) law for (alpha ) decay is unaltered in the case of hypernuclei. The hypernuclei will decay into normal nuclei by mesonic or non-mesonic decay modes. Since the half-lives of normal Po nuclei are well within the experimental limits, our theoretical results suggest experimental verification of the (alpha ) emission from hyper Po nuclei in a cascade process.