Microscopic description of alpha decay of deformed nuclei

The alpha decay of deformed nuclei is studied in the framework of the shell model. It is found that the model is able to describe the clustering of the four nucleons that eventually constitute the alpha particle. The clustering process occurs on the deformed nuclear surface and it is induced by high-lying configurations. The absolute decay width of ${}_{}{}^{222}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Rn}$ is calculated and good agreement with experimental data is obtained.