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Description
More than a century ago, alpha radioactivity was discovered by H. Becquerel. Since this discovery, many decay modes have been probed experimentally such as beta, cluster, proton or double-proton decays. However, it's only recently that a microscopic approach, also applied to fission, has been developed to describe alpha decay. This approach is in excellent agreement with experimental data. In this approach, a new type of radioactivity is also predicted: the symmetric emission of two alpha particles, back-to-back. Its branching ratio (about 10-8 compared to the dominant single alpha decay) makes it experimentally interesting, as similar low branching ratio processes, such as cluster decay, have already been probed experimentally.
During this talk, the theoretical model allowing for the prediction of double alpha decay will be briefly introduced and the experimental setup chosen to probe this new type of radioactivity shall be described.