Nuclear excitation by electron capture followed by fast x-ray emission

Abstract

The resonance strength of the two-step process of nuclear excitation by electron capture followed by $\gamma$ decay of the nucleus can be significantly increased in highly charged ions if the resonant capture proceeds via an excited electronic state with subsequent fast x-ray emission. For fully ionized ${}_{92}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ and ${}_{90}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$, the {x-ray} decay stabilizes the system against internal conversion of the captured electron, with an increase of both nuclear lifetimes and resonance strengths of up to two orders of magnitude compared with the case when occupied atomic orbitals prevent the x-ray de-excitation. Applications of this effect to the measurement of the not yet experimentally observed nuclear excitation by electron capture and to dense astrophysical plasmas are discussed.

arXiv comment12 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables

References in corpus (6)

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• Isomer triggering via nuclear excitation by electron capture
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• Laser-induced nonresonant nuclear excitation in muonic atoms
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• Coupling highly excited nuclei to the atomic shell in dense astrophysical plasmas
• Nuclear-resonant electron scattering
• Evidence for the virtual beta-gamma transition in 59Ni