No Arabic abstract
A significant decay branch of 8B to the ground state of 8Be would extend the solar neutrino spectrum to higher energies than anticipated in the standard solar models. These high-energy neutrinos would affect current neutrino oscillation results and also would be a background to measurements of the hep process. We have measured the delayed alpha particles from the decay of 8B, with the goal of observing the two 46-keV alpha particles arising from the ground-state decay. The 8B was produced using an in-flight radioactive beam technique. It was implanted in a silicon PIN-diode detector that was capable of identifying the alpha-particles from the 8Be ground state. From this measurement we find an upper limit (at 90% confidence level) of 7.3 x 10^{-5} for the branching ratio to the ground state. In addition to describing this measurement, we present a theoretical calculation for this branching ratio.
A new technique has been developed at TRIUMFs TITAN facility to perform in-trap decay spectroscopy. The aim of this technique is to eventually measure weak electron capture branching ratios (ECBRs) and by this to consequently determine GT matrix elements of $betabeta$ decaying nuclei. These branching ratios provide important input to the theoretical description of these decays. The feasibility and power of the technique is demonstrated by measuring the ECBR of $^{124}$Cs.
In $beta$-decay studies the determination of the decay probability to the ground state of the daughter nucleus often suffers from large systematic errors. The difficulty of the measurement is related to the absence of associated delayed $gamma$-ray emission. In this work we revisit the $4pigamma-beta$ method proposed by Greenwood and collaborators in the 1990s, which has the potential to overcome some of the experimental difficulties. Our interest is driven by the need to determine accurately the $beta$-intensity distributions of fission products that contribute significantly to the reactor decay heat and to the antineutrinos emitted by reactors. A number of such decays have large ground state branches. The method is relevant for nuclear structure studies as well. Pertinent formulae are revised and extended to the special case of $beta$-delayed neutron emitters, and the robustness of the method is demonstrated with synthetic data. We apply it to a number of measured decays that serve as test cases and discuss the features of the method. Finally, we obtain ground state feeding intensities with reduced uncertainty for four relevant decays that will allow future improvements in antineutrino spectrum and decay heat calculations using the summation method.
We report the first detection of the second-forbidden, non-unique, $2^+rightarrow 0^+$, ground-state transition in the $beta$ decay of $^{20}$F. A low-energy, mass-separated $^{20}rm{F}^+$ beam produced at the IGISOL facility in Jyvaskyla, Finland, was implanted in a thin carbon foil and the $beta$ spectrum measured using a magnetic transporter and a plastic-scintillator detector. The $beta$-decay branching ratio inferred from the measurement is $b_{beta} = [ 0.41pm 0.08textrm{(stat)}pm 0.07textrm{(sys)}] times 10^{-5}$ corresponding to $log ft = 10.89(11)$, making this one of the strongest second-forbidden, non-unique $beta$ transitions ever measured. The experimental result is supported by shell-model calculations and has significant implications for the final evolution of stars that develop degenerate oxygen-neon cores. Using the new experimental data, we argue that the astrophysical electron-capture rate on $^{20}$Ne is now known to within better than 25% at the relevant temperatures and densities.
We present a search for beta plus/EC double beta decay of 120Te performed with the CUORICINO experiment, an array of TeO2 cryogenic bolometers. After collecting 0.0573 kg y of 120Te, we see no evidence of a signal and therefore set the following limits on the half-life: T1/2 (0nu) > 1.9 10^{21} y at 90% C.L. for the 0 neutrino mode and T1/2 (2nu) > 7.6 10^{19} y at 90% C.L. for the two neutrino mode. These results improve the existing limits by almost three orders of magnitude (four in the case of 0 neutrino mode).
A search for double $beta$ decay of dysprosium was realized for the first time with the help of an ultra low-background HP Ge $gamma$ detector. After 2512 h of data taking with a 322 g sample of dysprosium oxide limits on double beta processes in $^{156}$Dy and $^{158}$Dy have been established on the level of $T_{1/2}geq 10^{14}-10^{16}$ yr. Possible resonant double electron captures in $^{156}$Dy and $^{158}$Dy were restricted on a similar level. As a by-product of the experiment we have measured the radioactive contamination of the Dy$_2$O$_3$ sample and set limits on the $alpha$ decay of dysprosium isotopes to the excited levels of daughter nuclei as $T_{1/2}geq 10^{15} - 10^{17}$ yr.