Nuclear-resonant electron scattering

TL;DR

This paper studies nuclear-resonant electron scattering, focusing on the process of nuclear excitation by electron capture and subsequent decay, providing calculations of rates and discussing experimental implications.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological model to calculate capture rates and resonant strengths for nuclear-resonant electron scattering in heavy ions, highlighting cases with larger resonance strengths than traditional NEEC.

Findings

Resonant electron scattering can surpass NEEC in resonance strength for certain systems.

The model uses experimental parameters for nuclear states and transitions.

Results suggest potential for experimental observation of NEEC-related processes.

Abstract

We investigate nuclear-resonant electron scattering as occurring in the two-step process of nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) followed by internal conversion. The nuclear excitation and decay are treated by a phenomenological collective model in which nuclear states and transition probabilities are described by experimental parameters. We present capture rates and resonant strengths for a number of heavy ion collision systems considering various scenarios for the resonant electron scattering process. The results show that for certain cases resonant electron scattering can have significantly larger resonance strengths than NEEC followed by the radiative decay of the nucleus. We discuss the impact of our findings on the possible experimental observation of NEEC.