Reply on "Comments on 'Time modulation of the K-shell electron capture decay rates of H-like heavy ions at GSI experiments'"

TL;DR

This paper responds to comments on previous work explaining time-modulated decay rates of certain ions at GSI, attributing the modulation to neutrino interference effects, and clarifies the interpretation of experimental data.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed reply to critiques of the neutrino interference explanation for observed decay rate modulations in H-like heavy ions.

Findings

Decay rates of specific ions show time modulation consistent with neutrino interference.

Positron decay mode does not exhibit time modulation, supporting the neutrino interference hypothesis.

The A-scaling of the period matches theoretical predictions based on neutrino mass differences.

Abstract

According to experimental data at GSI, the rates of the number of daughter ions, produced by the nuclear K-shell electron capture (EC) decays of the H-like 140Pr58+, 142Pm60+ and 122I52+ ions, are modulated in time with periods T_{EC} of the order of a few seconds, obeying an A-scaling T_{EC} = A/20 s, where A is the mass number of the mother nuclei, and with amplitudes a^{EC}_d ~ 0.21. In turn, the positron decay mode of the H-like 142Pm60+ ions showed no time modulation of the decay rates. As has been shown in Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 062502 (2009) and Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 182501 (2008), these data can be explained by the interference of two neutrino mass-eigenstates. In this letter we give a reply on the comments on our paper Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 062502 (2009) by V. Flambaum (arXiv: 0908.2039 [nucl-th]).