Pairing properties of the double-β emitter 116Cd

Abstract

The pairing properties of the neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay candidate ${}^{116}$Cd have been investigated. Measurements of the two-neutron removal reactions on isotopes of ${}^{114,116}$Cd have been made in order to identify 0${}^{+}$ strength in the residual nuclei up to $\approx$3 MeV. No significant $L=0$ strength has been found in excited states indicating that the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) approximation is a reasonable basis to describe the neutrons in the ground state. This approximation avoids complications in calculations of double-$\beta$ decay matrix elements that use the quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA) techniques. However this is not the case for the protons, where pair vibrations are prevalent and the BCS approximation is no longer valid, complicating the use of traditional QRPA techniques for this system as a whole.

5 pages, 3 figures, spreadsheet of supplemental material

References in corpus (5)

• Status and Future of Nuclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: A Review
• Anatomy of nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double-beta decay
• Measurement of the $2\nu \beta \beta$ Decay Half-Life and Search for the $0\nu \beta \beta$ Decay of ${}^{116}$Cd with the NEMO-3 Detector
• Pair correlations in nuclei involved in neutrinoless double beta decay: 76Ge and 76Se
• Neutron pair correlations in A=100 nuclei involved in neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Investigation of pair-correlated $0^{+}$ states in ${}^{134}$Ba via the ${}^{136}$Ba($p,t$) reaction