Search for Superscreening effect in Superconductor

Abstract

The decay of ${}^{19}$O(${\beta }^{-}$) and ${}^{19}$Ne(${\beta }^{+}$) implanted in niobium in its superconducting and metallic phase was measured using purified radioactive beams produced by the SPIRAL/GANIL facility. Half-lives and branching ratios measured in the two phases are consistent within one-sigma error bar. This measurement casts strong doubts on the predicted strong electron screening in superconductor, the so-called superscreening. The measured difference in screening potential energy is 110(90) eV for ${}^{19}$Ne and 400(320) eV for ${}^{19}$O. Precise determinations of the half-lives were obtained for ${}^{19}$O: 26.476(9) s and ${}^{19}$Ne: 17.254(5) s.

4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (1)

• High-Precision Measurement of the 19Ne Half-Life and Implications for Right-Handed Weak Currents

Cited by in corpus (6)

• $\mathcal{F}t$ values of the mirror $\beta$ transitions and the weak magnetism induced current in allowed nuclear $\beta$ decay
• Measurement of the half-life of the T=$\frac{1}{2}$ mirror decay of ${}^{19}$Ne and its implication on physics beyond the standard model
• Precision half-life measurement of the \boldmath${\beta }^{+}$ decay of \tsups{37}K
• Precise branching ratio measurements in ${}^{19}$Ne beta decay and fundamental tests of the weak interaction
• High Precision Measurement of the ${}^{19}$Ne Half-life using real-time digital acquisition
• Vud from Nuclear Mirror Transitions