Exploring the uncertainties in theoretical predictions of nuclear β-decay half-lives *

Abstract

Abstract Nuclear -decay half-lives are predicted based on an empirical formula and the mass predictions from various nuclear models. It is found that the empirical formula can reproduce the nuclear -decay half-lives well, especially for short-lived nuclei with s. The theoretical half-life uncertainties from -decay energies and the parameters of the empirical formula are further investigated. It is found that the uncertainties of the half-lives are relatively large for heavy nuclei and nuclei near the neutron-drip line. For nuclei on the r-process path, the uncertainties for those with are about one order of magnitude, which are much larger than the uncertainties for those with and . However, theoretical uncertainties from the parameters of the empirical formula are relatively small for the nuclei on the r-process path, which indicates that the empirical formula is very suitable for predicting the -decay half-lives in r-process simulations.