A theory for clustering formation in nuclei and in heavy-ion collisions has been worked out in terms of the quantum-mechanical fragmentation process. Treating the mass fragmentation and relative separation coordinates as weakly coupled, the spontaneous cluster-decay of radioactive nuclei has been considered as a two-step process of clustering formation and tunnelling of the confining nuclear interaction barrier. This model has also been applied to “stable” nuclei, lighter than lead. The effects of adding more and more neutrons to collidingN =Z,A = 4n nuclei are studied for theα-clustering transfer phenomenon.
