Cluster radioactivity with effects of deformations and orientations of nuclei included

Based on the preformed cluster model (PCM) of Gupta and collaborators, we have extended our recent study on ground-state cluster decays to parent nuclei resulting in daughters other than spherical {sup 208}Pb, i.e., to deformed daughters, and the very new cases of {sup 14}C and {sup 15}N decays of {sup 223}Ac, and {sup 34}Si decay of {sup 238}U, taking nuclei as spherical, quadrupole deformed ({beta}{sub 2}) alone, and with higher multipole deformations up to hexadecapole ({beta}{sub 2}, {beta}{sub 3}, {beta}{sub 4}) together with the 'optimum' orientations of cold decay process. Except for {sup 14}C decays of {sup 221}Fr, {sup 221-224,226}Ra, and {sup 225}Ac where higher multipole deformations up to {beta}{sub 4} are found essential, the quadrupole deformation {beta}{sub 2} alone is found good enough to fit the experimental data. Because the PCM treats the cluster-decay process as the tunneling of a preformed cluster, the deformations and orientations of nuclei modify both the preformation probability P{sub 0} and tunneling probability P, and hence the decay half-life, considerably.