https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2010-10958-2
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Precise half-life measurements for 38Ca and 39Ca
1
Centre d’études nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan, Université Bordeaux 1 - UMR 5797 CNRS/IN2P3, Chemin du Solarium, BP 120, 33175, Gradignan Cedex, France
2
Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, Serrano 113bis, 28006, Madrid, Spain
3
CERN, CH-1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
4
Grupo de Física Nuclear, Facultad CC. Físicas, Universidad Complutense, E-28040, Madrid, Spain
5
Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse, (CNRS/IN2P3) Bâtiment 108, Université de Paris Sud, F-91405, Orsay, France
6
Department of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55099, Mainz, Germany
* e-mail: blank@cenbg.in2p3.fr
Received:
22
October
2009
Revised:
26
January
2010
Accepted:
12
March
2010
Published online:
17
April
2010
The half-lives of 38Ca and 39Ca have been measured at ISOLDE of CERN. The REXTRAP facility was used to prepare ultra-clean samples of radioactive nuclei for precision decay spectroscopy. 38Ca is one of the T
z = - 1 , 0+
0+
-emitting nuclides used to determine the vector coupling constant of the weak interaction and the Vud quark-mixing matrix element. The result obtained, T
1/2 = 443.8(19) ms, is four times more precise than the average of previous measurements. For 39Ca , a half-life of T
1/2 = 860.7(10) ms is obtained, a result in agreement with the average value from the literature.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2010
