High precision measurement of the $^6$He half-life

TL;DR

This study presents the most precise measurement of the $^6$He half-life, resolving previous discrepancies and improving accuracy through advanced detection and data acquisition techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a highly precise measurement method for $^6$He half-life using a low energy radioactive beam and digital data acquisition, achieving the most accurate value to date.

Findings

Half-life of $^6$He measured as 807.25 ms

Results are consistent with previous high-precision measurement

Resolves longstanding measurement discrepancy

Abstract

The half-life of $^{6}$He has been measured using a low energy radioactive beam implanted in a YAP scintillator and recording decay events in a 4$\pi$ geometry. Events were time-stamped with a digital data acquisition system enabling a reliable control of dead-time effects and detector gain variations. The result, $T_{1/2} = (807.25 \pm 0.16_{\rm stat} \pm 0.11_{\rm sys}$)~ms, provides the most precise value obtained so far and is consistent with the only previous measurement having a precision smaller than 0.1%. This resolves the longstanding discrepancy previously observed between two sets of measurements.