<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>α</mml:mi></mml:math>-decay chain of the short-lived isotope <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi mathvariant="bold">Pa</mml:mi><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mn>220</mml:mn></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:math> established using a digital pulse processing technique

The decay properties of the short-lived isotope $^{220}\mathrm{Pa}$ were re-investigated via the reaction $^{40}\mathrm{Ar}+^{187}\mathrm{Re}$ at the gas-filled recoil separator Spectrometer for Heavy Atoms and Nuclear Structure. The digital pulse processing technique was applied to resolve the evaporation residues--$\ensuremath{\alpha}$ ($\mathrm{ER}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}$) pileup signals in the decay of $^{220}\mathrm{Pa}$. The $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-decay chain of $^{220}\mathrm{Pa}$ leading to the well-known $^{216}\mathrm{Ac}$ isotope was established for the first time. The $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ energy and half-life were measured to be ${E}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}=9.520(16)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MeV}$ and ${T}_{1/2}=0.90(13)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$, respectively. The spin parity of the ground state of $^{220}\mathrm{Pa}$ was assigned to be ${1}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, based on the reduced $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-decay width.