Experimental studies of the gamma resonances of long-lived nuclear isomers

Studying the gamma resonances of the long-lived nuclear isomers started at ITEP in the 1960s–1970s. The first experiments were conducted with silver isotopes. Its results did not contradict the existing theoretical ideas of large broadening of Mössbauer gamma lines via the interactions of nuclear magnetic moments. However, the data obtained in 11 experiments performed up until now with gamma sources made of silver metal doping by ¹⁰⁹Cd showed that there is no large broadening of ^109mAg Mössbauer gamma line with energy of 88.03 keV, that is the theoretically predicted gamma line broadening by ～10⁵ times is absent. The instrument of quite a new type—“gravitational gamma spectrometer”, designed at ITEP, allowed one to determine the form of ^109mAg gamma resonance, which proved to be ～10⁸ times narrower than that of well known nuclide ⁵⁷Fe. Some ideas are discussed as an attempt to explain this situation.