Understanding alpha decay

The subject of alpha decay is an important part of a course in modern physics, as it provides a clear experimental manifestation of the phenomenon of barrier penetration. The traditional approach, based on Gamow’s complex eigenvalue method, raises a number of questions which can be answered by employing the older but less well‐known procedure of summing over scattering states. Additional insights are gained by examination of the alpha decay system via more contemporary path integral based techniques