A1 Journal article (refereed)
Direct determination of the atomic mass difference of the pairs 76As−76Se and 155Tb−155Gd rules out 76As and 155 Tb as possible candidates for electron (anti)neutrino mass measurements (2022)

Ge, Z., Eronen, T., de Roubin, A., Kostensalo, J., Suhonen, J., Nesterenko, D. A., Beliuskina, O., de Groote, R., Delafosse, C., Geldhof, S., Gins, W., Hukkanen, M., Jokinen, A., Kankainen, A., Kotila, J., Koszorús, Á., Moore, I. D., Raggio, A., Rinta-Antila, S., . . . Zadvornaya, A. (2022). Direct determination of the atomic mass difference of the pairs 76As−76Se and 155Tb−155Gd rules out 76As and 155 Tb as possible candidates for electron (anti)neutrino mass measurements. Physical Review C, 106(1), Article 015502. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.015502

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Ge, Z.; Eronen, T.; de Roubin, A.; Kostensalo, J.; Suhonen, J.; Nesterenko, D. A.; Beliuskina, O.; de Groote, R.; Delafosse, C.; Geldhof, S.; et al.

Journal or series: Physical Review C

ISSN: 2469-9985

eISSN: 2469-9993

Publication year: 2022

Publication date: 13/07/2022

Volume: 106

Issue number: 1

Article number: 015502

Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.015502

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/82818

Web address of parallel published publication (pre-print): https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.07656

Abstract

The first direct determination of the ground-state–to–ground-state Q values of the β− decay 76As→76Se and the electron-capture decay 155Tb→155Gd was performed utilizing the double Penning trap mass spectrometer JYFLTRAP. By measuring the atomic mass difference of the decay pairs via the phase-imaging ion-cyclotron-resonance technique, the Q values of 76As→76Se and 155Tb→155Gd were determined to be 2959.265(74) keV and 814.94(18) keV, respectively. The precision was increased relative to earlier measurements by factors of 12 and 57, respectively. The new Q values are 1.33 keV and 5 keV lower compared to the values adopted in the most recent Atomic Mass Evaluation 2020. With the newly determined ground-state–to–ground-state Q values combined with the excitation energy from γ-ray spectroscopy, the Q values for ground-state–to–excited-state transitions 76As (ground state) →76Se∗ (2968.4(7) keV) and 155Tb (ground state) →155Gd∗ (815.731(3) keV) were derived to be −9.13(70) keV and −0.79(18) keV. Thus we have confirmed that both of the β−-decay and EC-decay candidate transitions are energetically forbidden at a level of at least 4σ, thus definitely excluding these two cases from the list of potential candidates for the search of low-Q-value β− or EC decays to determine the electron-(anti)neutrino mass.

Keywords: nuclear physics; particle physics; neutrinos

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Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2022

JUFO rating: 2