Influence of atomic modeling on electron capture and shaking processes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different atomic models influence electron-capture and shaking probabilities, highlighting the importance of atomic structure accuracy for precise decay predictions and encouraging new high-precision experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a modified electron-capture model incorporating various atomic descriptions within relativistic density-functional theory, assessing their impact on decay and shaking probabilities.

Findings

Probabilities depend strongly on atomic modeling accuracy.

Predictions align with existing experimental data for certain radionuclides.

High-precision measurements are needed to better test theoretical models.

Abstract

Ongoing experimental efforts to measure with unprecedented precision electron-capture probabilities challenges the current theoretical models. The short range of the weak interaction necessitates an accurate description of the atomic structure down to the nucleus region. A recent electron-capture modeling has been modified in order to test the influence of three different atomic descriptions on the decay and shaking probabilities. To this end, a specific atomic modeling was developed in the framework of the relativistic density-functional theory, exploring several exchange-correlation functionals and self-interaction-corrected models. It was found that the probabilities of total shaking, tested on both photoionization and electron-capture processes, depend strongly on the accuracy of the atomic modeling. Predictions of capture probabilities have been compared with experimental values evaluated from available published data for different radionuclides from $^{7}$Be to $^{138}$La. New high-precision measurements are strongly encouraged because the accuracy of the current experimental values is insufficient to test the models beyond the inner shells.