Lifetime and fragment correlations for the two-neutron decay of 26O ground state.

The structure and decay of 26O are investigated in a three-body 24O+n+n model suitable for studies of the long-lived (including radioactivity time scale) states. We have found extremely strong effects of the subbarrier configuration mixing on the decay width of true 2n emitters due to core recoil and neutron-neutron final state interaction. This effect far exceeds the analogous effect in the true 2p emitters. Our calculations provide reasonably narrow boundaries for the lifetime vs decay energy dependence for the true 2n emission. An upper limit of ∼1  keV for the decay energy of the unbound 26O is inferred based on the recent experimental lifetime value.