Investigating the effect of nuclear deformation on -decay half-lives of neutron-rich nuclei

We examine the effect of nuclear deformation on the calculated -decay half-lives of 55 neutron-rich nuclei. The deformation values were computed using DD-PC1 and DD-ME2 interactions in the Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov model. Yet another set of deformation was adopted from the Finite Range Droplet Model (FRDM). The model-dependent deformation values were used as a free parameter in the proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation model to calculate the -decay properties under terrestrial and stellar conditions. The Gamow-Teller strength distributions, branching ratios, half-lives and stellar weak rates of selected nuclei were later investigated. It was concluded that the -decay properties of neutron-rich nuclei changed with nuclear deformation. The FRDM computed deformation values provided the best predictions for calculated half-lives followed by the DD-ME2 functional. The terrestrial -decay half-lives changed up to 3 orders of magnitude and the stellar -rates within a factor of 2 as the neutron-rich nuclei switched their geometrical configurations. For magic number nucleus ^138Sn, the stellar rates changed substantially by more than 1 order of magnitude as the nucleus transitioned away from the spherical shape. Our investigation might prove useful for a realistic modeling of nucleosynthesis calculation.