An improved half-life limit of the double beta decay of ${}^{94}$Zr into the excited state of ${}^{94}$Mo

Abstract

A search for the double beta decay transition of ${}^{94}$Zr into the first excited state of ${}^{94}$Mo has been performed at the Felsenkeller underground laboratory in Dresden, Germany. A 341.1 g zirconium sample with natural isotopic composition has been measured for 43.9 d in an ultra low background gamma spectroscopy setup. No signal has been observed and a new best lower half-life limit is set as $5.2\times 10^{19}$ yr (90% CI). This limit is valid for the $0\nu \beta \beta$ and $2\nu \beta \beta$ decay into excited states of ${}^{94}$Mo but cannot distinguish between the two modes. Existing limits are improved by 50%.

References in corpus (3)

• $0\nu \beta \beta$ and $2\nu \beta \beta$ nuclear matrix elements in the interacting boson model with isospin restoration
• \textsc{MaGe} - a {\sc Geant4}-based Monte Carlo Application Framework for Low-background Germanium Experiments
• New limit for the half-life of double beta decay of ${}^{94}$Zr to the first excited state of ${}^{94}$Mo

Cited by in corpus (1)

• First limits on double beta decays in ${}^{232}$Th