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Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 5186 - 5189 (1996)

Double Beta Decay of 48Ca

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A. Balysh1, A. De Silva2, V. I. Lebedev1, K. Lou3, M. K. Moe2, M. A. Nelson2, A. Piepke3, A. Pronskiy1, M. A. Vient2, and P. Vogel3
1Kurchatov Institute, Kurchatov Square, 123182 Moscow, Russia
2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697
3Physics Department, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125

Received 2 August 1996

48Ca, the lightest experimentally accessible double beta decay candidate, is the only one simple enough to be treated exactly in the nuclear shell model. Thus the ββ2ν half-life measurement, reported here, provides a unique test of the nuclear physics involved in the ββ matrix element calculation. Enriched 48Ca sources of two different thicknesses have been exposed in a time projection chamber. We observe a half-life of T1/22ν  =  (4.3-1.1+2.4[stat]±1.4[syst])×1019 yr, consistent with shell model calculations.


©1996 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.5186
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.5186
PACS: 23.40.Hc, 21.10.Tg, 21.60.Cs, 27.40.+z

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