Search for tri-nucleon decays of 76 Ge in GERDA
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
- University College London
- University of Zurich
- Moscow Engineering Physics Institute
- University of Padua
- Technical University of Munich
- University of L'Aquila
- University of Tübingen
- Duke University
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Abstract
We search for tri-nucleon decays of 76 Ge in the dataset from the GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment. Decays that populate excited levels of the daughter nucleus above the threshold for particle emission lead to disintegration and are not considered. The ppp-, ppn-, and pnn-decays lead to 73 Cu, 73 Zn, and 73 Ga nuclei, respectively. These nuclei are unstable and eventually proceed by the beta decay of 73 Ga to 73 Ge (stable). We search for the 73 Ga decay exploiting the fact that it dominantly populates the 66.7 keV 73m Ga state with half-life of 0.5 s. The nnn-decays of 76 Ge that proceed via 73m Ge are also included in our analysis. We find no signal candidate and place a limit on the sum of the decay widths of the inclusive tri-nucleon decays that corresponds to a lower lifetime limit of 1.2 × 10 26 yr (90% credible interval). This result improves previous limits for tri-nucleon decays by one to three orders of magnitude.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 778 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-8 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | European Physical Journal C |
Volume | 83 |
Issue number | 9 |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2023 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |