Measurement of the Isolated Nuclear Two-Photon Decay in ${}^{72}\mathrm{Ge}$

Abstract

The nuclear two-photon or double-gamma ($2\gamma$) decay is a second-order electromagnetic process whereby a nucleus in an excited state emits two gamma rays simultaneously. To be able to directly measure the $2\gamma$ decay rate in the low-energy regime below the electron-positron pair-creation threshold, we combined the isochronous mode of a storage ring with Schottky resonant cavities. The newly developed technique can be applied to isomers with excitation energies down to $\sim 100$\,keV and half-lives as short as $\sim 10$\,ms. The half-life for the $2\gamma$ decay of the first-excited $0^{+}$ state in bare ${}^{72}\mathrm{Ge}$ ions was determined to be $23.9\left(6\right)$\,ms, which strongly deviates from expectations.

Comments: Submitted to Physical Review Letters, 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, 7 equations