Isomer triggering via nuclear excitation by electron capture

TL;DR

This paper investigates the process of nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) as a method to trigger long-lived nuclear isomers, demonstrating its efficiency over other mechanisms through calculated cross sections and reaction rates.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of NEEC as a trigger for nuclear isomers, including cross sections and comparison with other methods.

Findings

NEEC can effectively trigger nuclear isomers in highly-charged ions.

NEEC is more efficient than other isomer triggering mechanisms.

Calculated reaction rates support experimental feasibility.

Abstract

Triggering of long-lived nuclear isomeric states via coupling to the atomic shells in the process of nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) is studied. NEEC occurring in highly-charged ions can excite the isomeric state to a triggering level that subsequently decays to the ground state. We present total cross sections for NEEC isomer triggering considering experimentally confirmed low-lying triggering levels and reaction rates based on realistic experimental parameters in ion storage rings. A comparison with other isomer triggering mechanisms shows that, among these, NEEC is the most efficient.