Precise half-life measurement of the 10 h isomer in 154Tb

TL;DR

This paper precisely measures the half-life of the 10-hour isomer in 154Tb, reducing uncertainty and clarifying previous ambiguous values, which is crucial for accurate nuclear reaction cross section measurements.

Contribution

The paper provides a more accurate and reliable measurement of the 154Tb isomer's half-life, improving upon previous uncertain and ambiguous data.

Findings

Half-life of 154Tb isomer determined as 9.994 hours ± 0.039 hours.

Systematic errors carefully analyzed and minimized.

Enhanced accuracy in nuclear reaction cross section measurements.

Abstract

The precise knowledge of the half-life of the reaction product is of crucial importance for a nuclear reaction cross section measurement carried out with the activation technique. The cross section of the 151Eu(alpha,n)154Tb reaction has been measured recently using the activation method, however, the half-life of the 10 h isomer in 154Tb has a relatively high uncertainty and ambiguous values can be found in the literature. Therefore, the precise half-life of the isomeric state has been measured and found to be 9.994 h +- 0.039 h. With careful analysis of the systematic errors, the uncertainty of this half-life value has been significantly reduced.