Orateur
Description
There have been tremendous efforts studying the possible effect of neutron-proton (np) pairing on various nuclear properties. Most studies have focused on its impact on the nuclear binding energy and spectroscopy. In this contribution, I will start by a simple systematics of alpha correlation energies and illustrate how alpha clustering is affected by the like-particle pairing. It has ben expected that super-allowed alpha decay may be observed in N~Z nuclei with the further enhancement of alpha clustering by the np pairing. We tend to argue now that it may not be the case. On the other hand, our large-scale shell model calculations seem to indicate that the np correlation may enhance significantly the proton decay rate from odd-odd nuclei.
If time allows, I would also like to discuss the effect of np pairing on Gamow-Teller decays of nuclei below $^{100}$Sn.
