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

Based on the newest experimentally extracted nuclear density distributions for double-magic nucleus 208 Pb (Tarbert 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 208 Pb, i.e., isotopes of Z ¼ 82 and isotones of N ¼ 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 ¼ 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 ¼ 126 isotones. Therefore, it could be a possible way to extract the nuclear skin thickness from measured a -decay half-lives.