Nuclear Structure Relevant to Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay: $^{76}$Ge and $^{76}$Se

The possibility of observing neutrinoless double beta decay offers the opportunity of determining the neutrino mass IF the nuclear matrix element were known. Theoretical calculations are uncertain and measurements of the occupations of valence orbits by nucleons active in the decay can be important....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2008, Vol.100
Main Authors: Schiffer, J.P., Freeman, S.J., Clark, John Andrew, Deibel, C., Fitzpatrick, C.R., Gros, S., Heinz, A., Hirata, D., Jiang, C.L., Kay, B.P., Parikh, A., Parker, P.D., Rehm, K.E., Villari, A.C.C., Werner, V., Wrede, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Nuclear Experiment
Physics
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Summary:The possibility of observing neutrinoless double beta decay offers the opportunity of determining the neutrino mass IF the nuclear matrix element were known. Theoretical calculations are uncertain and measurements of the occupations of valence orbits by nucleons active in the decay can be important. The occupation of valence neutron orbits in the ground states of 76Ge and 76Se were determined by precisely measuring cross sections for both neutron-adding and removing transfer reactions. Our results indicate that the Fermi surface is much more diffuse than in theoretical (QRPA) calculations. We find that the populations of at least three orbits change significantly between these two ground states while in the calculations the changes are confined primarily to one orbit.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.112501