Beta Decay of Molecular Tritium

The beta decay of tritium in the form of molecular T2 is the basis of sensitive experiments to measure neutrino mass. The final-state electronic, vibrational, and rotational excitations modify the beta spectrum significantly and are obtained from theory. We report measurements of the branching ratio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-06, Vol.124 (22), p.1-222502, Article 222502
Main Authors: Lin, Y.-T., Burritt, T. H., Claessens, C., Holman, G., Kallander, M., Machado, E., Minter, L. I., Ostertag, R., Parno, D. S., Pedersen, J., Peterson, D. A., Robertson, R. G. H., Smith, E. B., Van Wechel, T. D., Vizcaya Hernández, A. P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beta decay
molecular tritium
neutrino mass
Neutrinos
NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Rotational spectra
Rotational states
Tritium
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Summary:The beta decay of tritium in the form of molecular T2 is the basis of sensitive experiments to measure neutrino mass. The final-state electronic, vibrational, and rotational excitations modify the beta spectrum significantly and are obtained from theory. We report measurements of the branching ratios to specific ionization states for the isotopolog HT. Two earlier, concordant measurements gave branching ratios of HT to the bound HHe+ ion of 89.5% and 93.2%, in sharp disagreement with the theoretical prediction of 55%–57%, raising concerns about the theory's reliability in neutrino mass experiments. Our result, 56.5(6)%, is compatible with the theoretical expectation and disagrees strongly with the previous measurements.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.222502