Half-Lives of Neutron Rich $^{130}$Cd and $^{131}$In

TL;DR

This study measures the half-lives of neutron-rich isotopes $^{130}$Cd and $^{131}$In near the $N=82$ shell closure, providing crucial experimental data to benchmark theoretical models used in astrophysical r-process simulations.

Contribution

The paper presents new precise half-life measurements of $^{130}$Cd and $^{131}$In, which are essential for calibrating nuclear models and improving r-process abundance predictions.

Findings

Half-life of $^{130}$Cd measured as 126(4) ms.

Half-lives of three $^{131}$In states measured.

Results serve as benchmarks for nuclear decay calculations.

Abstract

The half-lives of isotopes around the $N=82$ shell closure are an important ingredient in astrophysical simulations and strongly influence the magnitude of the second $r$-process abundance peak in the $A\sim130$ region. The most neutron-rich $N=82$ nuclei are not accessible to the current generation of radioactive beam facilities and $r$-process simulations must therefore rely on calculations of the half-lives of the isotopes involved. Half-life measurements of the experimentally accessible nuclei in this region are important in order to benchmark these calculations. The half-life of $^{130}$Cd is particularly important as it is used to tune the Gamow-Teller quenching in shell-model calculations for the $\beta$ decay of other nuclei in this region. In this work, the GRIFFIN $\gamma$-ray spectrometer at the TRIUMF-ISAC facility was used to measure the half-life of $^{130}_{~48}$Cd$_{82}$ to be $T_{1/2}= 126(4)$ ms. In addition, the half-lives of the three $\beta$ decaying states of $^{131}_{~49}$In$_{82}$ were measured to be $T_{1/2}(1/2^-)=328(15)$ ms, $T_{1/2}(9/2^+)=265(8)$ ms, and $T_{1/2}(21/2^+)=323(50)$ ms, respectively, providing an important benchmark for half-life calculations in this region.