Penning-trap-assisted study of 115Ru beta decay

The beta decay of ¹¹⁵Ru has been studied by means of Penning-trap-assisted beta and gamma spectroscopy at the IGISOL facility. The level scheme of ¹¹⁵Rh has been substantially extended and compared with the level systematics of lighter rhodium isotopes. Tentative candidates for three states of the deformed K = 1/2 band have been suggested. The beta-strength distribution of the beta decay of ¹¹⁵Ru differs from the beta decays of ^{111, 113, 113m}Ru isotopes due to non-observation of the 3-quasiparticle states in ¹¹⁵Rh. The decay properties of ¹¹⁵Ru indicate a spin-parity of (3/2⁺ for its beta-decaying ground state. In addition, possible Nilsson states as well as the shape and spin transitions in odd neutron-rich ruthenium isotopes are discussed.     

Beta decay of <Superscript>115</Superscript>In to the first excited level of <Superscript>115</Superscript>Sn: Potential outcome for neutrino mass

Recent observation of β decay of ¹¹⁵In to the first excited level of ¹¹⁵Sn with an extremely low Q _β value (Q _β ≤ O(1) [keV]) could be used to set a limit on neutrino mass. To give a restriction potentially competitive with those extracted from experiments with ³H (≃2 eV) and ¹⁸⁷Re (≃15 eV), the atomic mass difference between ¹¹⁵In and ¹¹⁵Sn and energy of the first ¹¹⁵Sn level should be remeasured with higher accuracy (possibly of the order of ∼1 eV). The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Double-beta decay of <Superscript>100</Superscript>Mo to 0<Superscript>+</Superscript> excited states in <Superscript>100</Superscript>Ru

A brief review on the 2νββ decay of ¹⁰⁰Mo to the 0⁺ excited state in ¹⁰⁰Ru is performed. A weighted-average half-life value for the decay has been obtained, T_1/2 = (6.8 ± 1.2) × 10²⁰ yr. The corresponding average value for the nuclear matrix element was extracted, 0.095 ± 0.009.     

Double beta decay of <Superscript>150</Superscript>Nd to the First 0<Superscript>+</Superscript> excited state of <Superscript>150</Superscript>Sm

Two neutrino double beta decay of ¹⁵⁰Nd to the first 0⁺ excited state in ¹⁵⁰Sm is investigated with the 400 cm³ low-background HPGe detector. Data analysis for 11320.5 h shows the excess of events at 333.9 and 406.5 keV. This makes it possible to estimate the half-life of the investigated process as [1.4 _?0.2 ^+.04 (stat)±0.3(syst)]×10²⁰yr.     

Influence of pairing in double beta decay of <Superscript>48</Superscript>Ca

Two-neutrino ββ decay matrix elements and half-life of ⁴⁸Ca are calculated after including neutron-proton pairing correlations in projected Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (PHFB) formalism. The GT matrix elements in 2νββ decay are reduced due to broader smearing of Fermi surfaces. Half-life results for 2νββ decay of 48Ca with np pairing are better than without pairing.     

<Superscript>18</Superscript>Ne diproton decay

Two proton radioactivity studies have been performed on excited states of ¹⁸Ne produced, among other fragments, by ²⁰Ne projectile fragmentation and excited via Coulomb excitation on a Pb target. Every incoming ion was tagged before interacting with the lead target on an event by event basis in order to discriminate the secondary reactions according to the projectile. Decay of ¹⁸Ne levels has been studied by complete kinematical reconstruction. In spite of the low statistics a couple of events looks very promising for two proton correlated emission.     

Double-beta decay of <Superscript>150</Superscript>Nd to the first 0<Superscript>+</Superscript> excited state of <Superscript>150</Superscript> Sm: Current state

Two-neutrino double-beta decay of ¹⁵⁰Nd to the first 0⁺ excited state in ¹⁵⁰Sm is investigated with the 400-cm³ low-background HPGe detector. Preliminary data analysis for 6843 h shows an excess of events at 333.9 and 406.5 keV. If this excess is assigned to the investigated transition, then its half-life can be estimated at [1.2 _?0.3 ^+0.5 ±0.4(syst.)]×10²⁰ yr.     

The low-spin structure of <Superscript>115</Superscript>Xe

The low-spin band structure of neutron-deficient ¹¹⁵ ₅₄Xe has been studied following a low-energy (212.3 MeV) ⁶⁰Ni(⁵⁸Ni,2pnγ) reaction performed at IReS, Strasbourg, with the Garel⁺ spectrometer. The relative excitation energies of νh_11/2 (isomeric), νg_7/2, and νd_5/2 bandheads have been established. Received: 23 March 2000     

<Superscript>123</Superscript>I → <Superscript>123</Superscript>Te β decay

The β decay of ¹²³I has been calculated within the dynamic collective model developed by the authors earlier. The expression for the reduced matrix element of the weak-interaction Hamiltonian has been used for the partial β decay. The influence of the vacuum fluctuations and creation or annihilation of one or two phonons on the reduced β-decay probabilities is taken into account.     

Double-beta decay of <Superscript>150</Superscript>Nd to the first 0<Superscript>+</Superscript> excited state of <Superscript>150</Superscript>Sm

Two-neutrino-double-beta decay of ¹⁵⁰Nd to the first 0⁺ excited state in ¹⁵⁰Sm is investigated with a 400-cm³ low-background HPGe detector. Data analysis for 11320.5 h shows an excess of events at 333.9 and 406.5 keV. This allows us to estimate the half-life of the investigated process as [1.4 _?0.2 ^+0.4 ±0.3(syst.)]×10²⁰ yr.     

QED radiative corrections to the decay π<Superscript>0</Superscript>→e<Superscript>+</Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript>

We reconsider QED radiative corrections (RC) to the π⁰→e⁺e^- decay width. One kind of RC investigated earlier has a renormalization group origin and can be associated with the final state interaction of electron and positron. It determines the distribution of lepton pair invariant masses in the whole kinematic region. The other type of RC has a double-logarithmic character and is related to almost on-mass-shell behavior of the lepton form factors. The total effect of RC for π⁰→e⁺e^- decay is estimated to be 3.2%, and for η→e⁺e^- decay it is 4.3%. PACS  13.25.Cq; 12.38.Lg; 12.38.-t     

Search for double beta decay of <Superscript>106</Superscript>Cd in the TGV-2 experiment

An investigation of double beta decay (β⁺β⁺, β⁺/EC, EC/EC) of ¹⁰⁶Cd was performed at the Modane underground laboratory (at a water equivalent depth of 4800 m) using a TGV-2 spectrometer with 32 detectors. Evaluation of the experimental data accumulated over 12 400 h of measuring ～13.6 g of ¹⁰⁶Cd with an enrichment of 75% was performed. New limits (at a confidence level of 90%) on the half-lives of the 0νEC/EC resonant decay of ¹⁰⁶Cd to the 2741 keV excited state of ¹⁰⁶Pd ? T _1/2 ≥ 1.5 × 10²⁰ y and on 2νEC/EC decay to the ground state of ¹⁰⁶Pd (0⁺ → 0⁺, g.s.) ? T _1/2 ≥ 3.9 × 10²⁰ y were obtained. The limits of the 2νEC/EC decay of ¹⁰⁶Cd to the 2⁺, 512 keV and 0 ₁ ⁺ , 1334 keV excited states of ¹⁰⁶Pd and 2νβ⁺β⁺- and the 2νβ⁺ EC decays of ¹⁰⁶Cd to the ground and excited states of ¹⁰⁶Pd were improved.     

Search for the double-beta decay of <Superscript>130</Superscript>Te to excited states in <Superscript>130</Superscript>Xe

Experimental limits on the half-lives with respect to the (0ν+2ν) double-beta decay of ¹³⁰Te to excited states in ¹³⁰Xe are obtained by using low-background HPGe detectors. At a 90% C.L., they are 1.6×10²¹, 2.7×10²¹, and 2.3×10²¹ yr for transitions to the 2 ₁ ⁺ , 2 ₂ ⁺ , and 0 ₁ ⁺ levels, respectively.     

Dynamical decay process of <Superscript>219, 220</Superscript>Ra<Superscript>*</Superscript> formed in <Superscript>10, 11</Superscript>B + <Superscript>209</Superscript>Bi reactions

The excitation functions for both the evaporation residue and fission have been calculated for ¹⁰B + ²⁰⁹Bi and ¹¹B + ²⁰⁹Bi reactions forming compound systems ^{219, 220}Ra^* , using the dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM) with effects of deformations and orientations of the nuclei included in it. In addition to this, the excitation functions for complete fusion (CF) are obtained by summing the fission cross-sections, neutron evaporation and charged particle evaporation residue cross-sections produced through the axn\ensuremath \alpha xn and pxn\ensuremath pxn (x = 2, 3, 4) emission channels for the ²¹⁹Ra system at various incident centre-of-mass energies. Experimentally the CF cross-sections are suppressed and the observed suppression is attributed to the low binding energy of ^{10, 11}B which breaks up into charged fragments. The reported complete fusion (CF) and incomplete fusion (ICF) excitation functions for the ²¹⁹Ra system are found to be nicely fitted by the calculations performed in the framework of DCM, without invoking a significant contribution from quasi-fission. Although DCM has been applied for a number of compound nucleus decay studies in the recent past, the same is being used here in reference to ICF and subsequent decay processes along with the CF process. Interestingly the main contribution to complete fusion cross-section comes from the fission cross-section at higher incident energies, which in DCM is found to consist of an asymmetric fission window, shown to arise due to the deformation and orientation effects of formation and decay fragments.     

Limits of Majorana neutrino mass from combined analysis of data from <Superscript>76</Superscript>Ge and <Superscript>136</Superscript>Xe neutrinoless double beta decay experiments

We present effective Majorana neutrino mass limits <m _ββ> obtained from the joint analysis of the recently published results of ⁷⁶Ge and ¹³⁶Xe neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) experiments, which was carried out by using the Bayesian calculations. Nuclear matrix elements (NMEs) used for the analysis are taken from the works, in which NMEs of ⁷⁶Ge and ¹³⁶Xe were simultaneously calculated. This reduced systematic errors connected with NME calculation techniques. The new effective Majorana neutrino mass limits <m _ββ> less than [85.4–197.0] meV are much closer to the inverse neutrino mass hierarchy region.     

Super-allowed α decay above doubly-magic <Superscript>100</Superscript>Sn and properties of <Superscript>104</Superscript>Te = <Superscript>100</Superscript>Sn ⊗ α

α-decay half-lives for ^{104, 105, 106}Te and ^{108, 109, 110}Xe close above the doubly-magic ¹⁰⁰Sn are calculated from systematic double-folding potentials. The derived α preformation factors are compared to results for ^{212, 213, 214}Po and ^{216, 217, 218}Rn above the doubly-magic ²⁰⁸Pb. α-decay energies of Q _α = 5.42±0.07MeV and 4.65±0.15MeV are predicted for ¹⁰⁴Te and ¹⁰⁸Xe; the corresponding half-lives are T _1/2 ≈ 5ns for ¹⁰⁴Te and of the order of 60μs for ¹⁰⁸Xe. Additionally, the properties of rotational bands in ¹⁰⁴Te are analyzed, and the first excited 2⁺ state in ¹⁰⁴Te is predicted at E _x = 650±40keV; it decays preferentially by γ emission with a reduced transition strength of 10 Weisskopf units to the ground state of ¹⁰⁴Te and with a minor branch by α emission to the ground state of ¹⁰⁰Sn.     

CP violation in the B→Kℓ<Superscript>+</Superscript>ℓ<Superscript>-</Superscript> decay

Standard model (SM) CP asymmetries in B→Kℓ⁺ℓ^- are expected to be very small. This feature could help in the understanding of new physics scenarios which predict the existence of CP odd phases in various Wilson coefficients. In this paper we have analyzed the B→Kℓ⁺ℓ^- decay in scenarios beyond the SM where the Wilson coefficients have new CP odd phases. The sensitivity of the CP asymmetries on these new weak phases is discussed. PACS 13.20.He; 12.60.-i; 13.88.+e     

Contributions from SUSY-FCNC couplings to the interpretation of the HyperCP events for the decay Σ<Superscript>+</Superscript>→pμ<Superscript>+</Superscript>μ<Superscript>-</Superscript>

The observation of three events for the decay Σ⁺→pμ⁺μ^- with a dimuon invariant mass of 214.3 ± 0.5 MeV by the HyperCP Collaboration implies that a new particle X may be needed to explain the observed dimuon invariant mass distribution. We show that there are regions in the SUSY-FCNC parameter space where the A⁰ ₁ in the NMSSM can be used to explain the HyperCP events without contradicting all the existing constraints from the measurements of the kaon decays, and the constraints from K⁰–K̄⁰ mixing are automatically satisfied once the constraints from kaon decays are satisfied. PACS  14.80.Cp; 12.60.Jv; 14.20.Jn