β -decay properties of neutron-rich rare-earth isotopes

Abstract

In this paper, β-decay properties of even-even neutron-rich isotopes in the rare-earth mass region are studied within a microscopic theoretical approach based on a proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation. The underlying mean field is constructed self-consistently from a deformed Hartree-Fock calculation with Skyrme interactions and pairing correlations to which particle-hole and particle-particle residual interactions are added. Nuclei in this mass region participate in the astrophysical rapid neutron capture process and are directly involved in the generation of the rare-earth peak in the isotopic abundance pattern centered at A≃160. The energy distributions of the Gamow-Teller strength as well as the β-decay half-lives and the β-delayed neutron-emission probabilities are discussed and compared with the available experimental information and with calculations based on different approaches.