Eur. Phys. J. A (2006) 27: 193-196
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2006-08-029-2

Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics II

New measurement of ⁷Be half-life in different metallic environments

¹ Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Università Federico II and INFN Sezione di Napoli, Italy
² ATOMKI, POB 51, H-4001, Debrecen, Hungary
³ Institut für Experimentalphysik III, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
⁴ Facoltà di Scienze Ambientali della Seconda, Università di Napoli, Caserta, Italy

^* e-mail: limata@na-infn.it

Received: 29 July 2005
Accepted: 20 December 2005
Published online: 7 March 2006

Abstract

⁷Be decays via electron capture and therefore its half-life is expected to depend on the electron density at the nucleus. We measured the ⁷Be half-life in palladium, tungsten, zirconium and tantalum metals, in order to investigate the influence of the quasi-free electrons in metals on the probability of electron capture. The ⁷Be samples were obtained implanting a 4.85MeV pure radioactive ⁷Be ion beam. The ⁷Be half-life was determined measuring the 478keV gamma decay following the electron capture by means of HPGe detectors. In order to reduce systematic errors, we planned to perform independent measurements in three different laboratories: Naples (Italy), Bochum (Germany) and Debrecen (Hungary). On the basis of the first results, we do not find a ⁷Be half-life change within the experimental errors of 0.4%.