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Elucidating the nature of the proton radioactivity and branching ratio on the first proton emitter discovered 53mCo

Sarmiento Pico, Luis LU ; Roger, Thomas ; Giovinazzo, J ; Brown, B. Alex ; Blank, Blank ; Rudolph, Dirk LU orcid ; Kankainen, A. ; Alvarez-Pol, H. ; Arokia Raj, A. and Ascher, P. , et al. (2023) In Nature Communications 14.
Abstract
The observation of a weak proton-emission branch in the decay of the 3174keV 53mCo isomeric state marked the discovery of proton radioactivity in atomic nuclei in 1970. Here we show, based on the partial half-lives and the decay energies of the possible proton-emission branches, that the exceptionally high angular momentum barriers, lp = 9 and lp = 7, play a key role in hindering the proton radioactivity from 53mCo, making them very challenging to observe and calculate. Indeed, experiments had to wait decades for significant advances in accelerator facilities and multi-faceted state-of-the-art decay stations to gain full access to all observables. Combining data taken with the TASISpec decay station at the Accelerator Laboratory of the... (More)
The observation of a weak proton-emission branch in the decay of the 3174keV 53mCo isomeric state marked the discovery of proton radioactivity in atomic nuclei in 1970. Here we show, based on the partial half-lives and the decay energies of the possible proton-emission branches, that the exceptionally high angular momentum barriers, lp = 9 and lp = 7, play a key role in hindering the proton radioactivity from 53mCo, making them very challenging to observe and calculate. Indeed, experiments had to wait decades for significant advances in accelerator facilities and multi-faceted state-of-the-art decay stations to gain full access to all observables. Combining data taken with the TASISpec decay station at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the ACTAR TPC device on LISE3 at GANIL, France, we measured their branching ratios as bp1 = 1.3(1)% and bp2 = 0.025(4)%. These results were compared to cutting-edge shell-model and barrier penetration calculations. This description reproduces the order of magnitude of the branching ratios and partial half-lives, despite their very small spectroscopic factors. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
proton radioactivity, isomeric decays, Decay spectroscopy, Penning trap, time-projection chamber, nuclear shell model
in
Nature Communications
volume
14
article number
5961
pages
7 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:37749147
  • scopus:85172082146
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-39389-2
project
Nuclear Structure at the Limits: Isotope-selective Spectroscopy
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
33de2705-c1de-4132-a458-04b0914fa6c0
date added to LUP
2023-09-26 03:47:46
date last changed
2023-10-06 16:16:19
@article{33de2705-c1de-4132-a458-04b0914fa6c0,
  abstract     = {{The observation of a weak proton-emission branch in the decay of the 3174keV 53mCo isomeric state marked the discovery of proton radioactivity in atomic nuclei in 1970. Here we show, based on the partial half-lives and the decay energies of the possible proton-emission branches, that the exceptionally high angular momentum barriers, lp = 9 and lp = 7, play a key role in hindering the proton radioactivity from 53mCo, making them very challenging to observe and calculate. Indeed, experiments had to wait decades for significant advances in accelerator facilities and multi-faceted state-of-the-art decay stations to gain full access to all observables. Combining data taken with the TASISpec decay station at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the ACTAR TPC device on LISE3 at GANIL, France, we measured their branching ratios as bp1 = 1.3(1)% and bp2 = 0.025(4)%. These results were compared to cutting-edge shell-model and barrier penetration calculations. This description reproduces the order of magnitude of the branching ratios and partial half-lives, despite their very small spectroscopic factors.}},
  author       = {{Sarmiento Pico, Luis and Roger, Thomas and Giovinazzo, J and Brown, B. Alex and Blank, Blank and Rudolph, Dirk and Kankainen, A. and Alvarez-Pol, H. and Arokia Raj, A. and Ascher, P. and Block, Michael and Caamaño-Fresco, M. and Caceres, L and Canete, L. and Cox, Daniel and Eronen, Tommi and Fahlander, Claes and Fernandez-Dominguez, B. and Forsberg, Ulrika and Lois-Fuentes, Juan and Gerbaux, M. and Gerl, Jürgen and Golubev, Pavel and Grévy, S and Grinyer, G. F. and Habermann, T. and Hakala, Jani and Jokinen, A. and Kamalou, O. and Kojouharov, I. and Kolhinen, V. S. and Koponen, J. and Kurz, Nikolaus and Lalović, Nataša and Lorenz, Ch. and Mauss, B. and Mentana, A. and Moore, Iain D. and Ortega Moral, A. and Pancin, J. and Papadakis, P. and Pibernat, J. and Piot, J. and Pohjalainen, I. and Reinikainen, J. and Rinta-Antila, S. and Schaffner, H. and Sorlin, Olivier and Stodel, C and Thomas, Jean-Charles and Versteegen, M. and Voss, Annika}},
  issn         = {{2041-1723}},
  keywords     = {{proton radioactivity; isomeric decays; Decay spectroscopy; Penning trap; time-projection chamber; nuclear shell model}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Communications}},
  title        = {{Elucidating the nature of the proton radioactivity and branching ratio on the first proton emitter discovered <sup>53m</sup>Co}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39389-2}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41467-023-39389-2}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}