Structure and 2p decay mechanism of $^{18}Mg$

摘要: The recently discovered, extremely proton-rich nuclide ¹⁸Mg exhibits ground-state decay via two sequential two-proton (2p) emissions through the intermediate nucleus, ¹⁶Ne. This study investigates the structure and the initial 2p decay mechanism of ¹⁸Mg by examining the density and correlations of the valence protons using a three-body Gamow-coupled-channel method. The results show that the ground state of ¹⁸Mg is significantly influenced by the continuum, resulting in a significant s-wave component. However, based on the current frame- work, this does not lead to a significant deviation in mirror symmetry in either the structure or spectroscopy of the ¹⁸Mg-¹⁸C pair. Additionally, the time evolution analysis of the ¹⁸Mg ground state suggests a simultaneous 2p emission during the first step of decay. The observed nucleon–nucleon correlations align with those of the light–mass 2p emitters, indicating a consistent decay behavior within this nuclear region.