High-precision direct decay energy measurements of the electron-capture decay of ${}^{97}$Tc

Abstract

A direct measurement of the ground-state-to-ground-state electron-capture decay $Q$ ($Q_{\mathrm{EC}}$) value of ${}^{97}$Tc has been conducted employing the high resolving power phase-imaging ion-cyclotron-resonance technique with the double Penning trap mass spectrometer JYFLTRAP. The resulting $Q_{\mathrm{EC}}$ value for ${}^{97}$Tc is 324.82(21) keV, exhibiting a precision approximately 19 times higher than the value adopted in the newest Atomic Mass Evaluation (AME2020) and differing by 1.2$\sigma$. Furthermore, by combining this refined $Q$ value with nuclear energy-level data for the decay-daughter ${}^{97}$Mo, a potential ultra-low Q-value transition, possibly of allowed type, ${}^{97}$Tc (9/2${}^{+}$, ground state) $\to$ ${}^{97}$Mo${}^{\ast }$ (320(1) keV), was evaluated for future long-term neutrino-mass determination experiments. The ground-state-to-excited-state electron-capture decay $Q$ value ($Q_{\mathrm{EC}}^{\ast }$) of this transition was determined to be 4.8(10) keV, confirming it to be energetically allowed with a confidence level of exceeding 4$\sigma$. The captures of electrons occupying the L and higher shells for this transition are energetically allowed, giving a value of 2.0(10) keV for the closest distance of $Q_{\mathrm{EC}}^{\ast }$ to the allowed binding energy of the L1 shell. To predict partial half-lives and energy-release distributions for this transition, the atomic self-consistent many-electron Dirac--Hartree--Fock--Slater method and the nuclear shell model have been employed. Dominant correction terms such as exchange and overlap corrections, as well as shake-up and shake-off effects, were included in the final results. Moreover, the normalized distribution of released energy in the electron-capture decay of ${}^{97}$Tc to excited states of ${}^{97}$Mo, is compared with that of ${}^{163}$Ho, which is being used for electron-neutrino-mass determination.

Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures