Study of two-neutron radioactivity in the decay of 26O

Z Kohley; T Baumann; D Bazin; G Christian; P A DeYoung; J E Finck; N Frank; M Jones; E Lunderberg; B Luther; S Mosby; T Nagi; J K Smith; J Snyder; A Spyrou; M Thoennessen

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.152501

Study of two-neutron radioactivity in the decay of 26O

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Apr 12;110(15):152501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.152501. Epub 2013 Apr 8.

Authors

Z Kohley¹, T Baumann², D Bazin², G Christian³, P A DeYoung⁴, J E Finck⁵, N Frank⁶, M Jones³, E Lunderberg⁴, B Luther⁷, S Mosby³, T Nagi⁴, J K Smith³, J Snyder³, A Spyrou³, M Thoennessen³

Affiliations

¹ National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA and Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
² National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
³ National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Hope College, Holland, Michigan 49423, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois 61201, USA.
⁷ Department of Physics, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota 56562, USA.

PMID: 25167255
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.152501

Abstract

A new technique was developed to measure the lifetimes of neutron unbound nuclei in the picosecond range. The decay of 26O→24O+n+n was examined as it had been predicted to have an appreciable lifetime due to the unique structure of the neutron-rich oxygen isotopes. The half-life of 26O was extracted as 4.5(-1.5)(+1.1)(stat)±3(syst) ps. This corresponds to 26O having a finite lifetime at an 82% confidence level and, thus, suggests the possibility of two-neutron radioactivity.