Evaluation of bound-state $\beta^-$-decay half-lives of fully ionized atoms

TL;DR

This paper provides a systematic theoretical analysis of bound-state beta-minus decay in fully ionized atoms, calculating decay rates and half-lives, and identifying promising candidates for experimental study and astrophysical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to evaluate nuclear matrix elements for forbidden beta decays in fully ionized atoms and assesses their impact on decay half-lives.

Findings

Bound-state beta decay rates are significantly enhanced in fully ionized atoms.

Certain bare nuclei have much shorter half-lives than neutral atoms, making them promising for experiments.

The results can inform astrophysical models involving highly ionized nuclear species.

Abstract

Bound-state $\beta^-$-decay is a rare radioactive process where the created electron is trapped in an atomic orbital instead of being emitted. It can be observed in highly ionized atoms in particular when normal beta decay is energetically forbidden, but bound-state decay is still possible. In this work we present a systematic theoretical study on the bound-state $\beta^-$-decay of fully ionized atoms where key nuclear inputs include the nuclear matrix elements (expressed through $ft$ values) and the lepton phase-space volume function. We present a method to evaluate nuclear matrix elements for fully forbidden $\beta^-$ transitions in neutral atoms, from the inverse electron capture process using the Takahashi-Yokoi model and account for the impact of electron capture to different atomic orbitals on the resulting half-lives. Decay rates for bound-state $\beta^-$-decays of nuclei $^{163}$Dy, $^{193}$Ir, $^{194}$Au, $^{202}$Tl, $^{205}$Tl, $^{215}$At, $^{222}$Rn, $^{243}$Am, and $^{246}$Bk are calculated, where the normal beta decay is forbidden. In addition, we compute the bound-state $\beta^-$ decay rates for nuclei $^{187}$Re, $^{227}$Ac, and $^{228}$Ra, observing enhancements by factors of $10^2$ to $10^4$ relative to their neutral-atom counterparts. Our results show that the half-lives of certain bare nuclei are significantly shorter than those of the corresponding neutral atoms, identifying them as promising candidates for future experimental investigation. The theoretically predicted half-lives of the bound-state $\beta^-$ decay could provide valuable inputs for various astrophysical studies.