Eur. Phys. J. A (2012) 48: 22
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2012-12022-9

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Half-life measurements of stored fully ionized and hydrogen-like ¹²² I ions

¹ GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
² Faculty of Physics, St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, 1164, Sofia, Bulgaria
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany
⁴ Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1784, Sofia, Bulgaria
⁵ Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188350, Gatchina, Russia
⁶ Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
⁷ Service de Physique Nucléaire, CEA-Saclay, Gif-Sur-Yvette, F-91191, Cedex, France
⁸ ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
⁹ II. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Gießen, 35392, Gießen, Germany
¹⁰ Physik Department E12, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany
¹¹ Stefan Meyer Institut für subatomare Physik, 1090, Vienna, Austria
¹² Department of Physics, Saitama University, 338-8570, Saitama, Japan
¹³ Niigata University, 950-2181, Niigata, Japan
¹⁴ Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 730000, Lanzhou, PRC
¹⁵ Helmholtz-Institut Jena, 07743, Jena, Germany
¹⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica, INFN, I35131, Padova, Italy
¹⁷ Manipal Academy of Higher Education, KA 576104, Manipal, India
¹⁸ National Centre for Nuclear Research, PL-00681, Warsaw, Poland
¹⁹ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
²⁰ Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Germany
²¹ School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering, Beihang University, 100191, Beijing, PRC
²² INSP, CNRS and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, UMR7588, 75005, Paris, France
²³ St. Petersburg State University, 198504, St. Petersburg, Russia

^* e-mail: N.Winckler@gsi.de

Received: 25 November 2011
Accepted: 10 February 2012
Published online: 24 February 2012

Abstract

The half-lives of fully ionized and hydrogen-like (H-like) ¹²²I ions have been measured in a heavy-ion storage ring. The -decay constants for both charge states and the electron capture (EC) decay constant of H-like ions have been determined. The EC-decay constant in H-like ¹²²I ions is, within the uncertainty, the same as the one in neutral atoms. This result is in agreement with the estimates of recent theoretical considerations on the EC-decay of few-electron ions that explicitly take into account the conservation of the total angular momentum of the nucleus plus lepton(s) system and its projections. No firm confirmation could be concluded from our results on the predicted effect that allowed Gamow-Teller transitions become forbidden if the initial and final total angular momenta are not equal.-1