First measurement of the partial widths of 209Bi decay to the ground and to the first excited states

J W Beeman; M Biassoni; C Brofferio; C Bucci; S Capelli; L Cardani; M Carrettoni; M Clemenza; O Cremonesi; E Ferri; A Giachero; L Gironi; P Gorla; C Gotti; A Nucciotti; C Maiano; L Pattavina; M Pavan; G Pessina; S Pirro; E Previtali; M Sisti; L Zanotti

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.062501

First measurement of the partial widths of 209Bi decay to the ground and to the first excited states

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Feb 10;108(6):062501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.062501. Epub 2012 Feb 9.

Authors

Affiliation

¹ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

PMID: 22401058
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.062501

Abstract

209Bi alpha decay to the ground and to the first excited state have been recently observed for the first time with a large BGO scintillating bolometer. The half-life of 209Bi is determined to be τ(1/2)=(2.01±0.08)×10(19) yr while the branching ratio for the ground-state to ground-state transition is (98.8±0.3)%.