A new cluster model interpretation of the anomalous lifetime of 14C

A new cluster model solution to the long-standing nuclear structure problem of describing the anomalously long lifetime of ¹⁴C is presented. Related beta-decay data for ¹⁴O to states in ¹⁴N, gamma-decay data between low-lying positive parity states in ¹⁴N and the elastic and inelastic magnetic dipole electron scattering from ¹⁴N data are all shown to be very accurately described by the model. The shapes of the beta spectra for the A = 14 system are also well reproduced by the model. The model invokes four-nucleon tetrahedral symmetric spatial correlations arising from three- and four-nucleon interactions, which yields a high degree of SU(4) singlet structure for the clusters and a tetrahedral intrinsic shape for the doubly magic ¹⁶O ground state. The large quadrupole moment of the ¹⁴N ground state is obtained here for the first time and arises because of the almost 100% d-wave deuteron-like-hole cluster structure inherent in the model.