https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2013-13050-7
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
New experimental limits on the α decays of lead isotopes
19879
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA
29879
Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, I 00185, Roma, Italy
39879
INFN, Sezione di Roma, I 00185, Roma, Italy
49879
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli studi dell’Aquila, I 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
59879
INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, I 67010, L’Aquila, Italy
69879
INFN, Sezione di Genova, I 16146, Genova, Italy
79879
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, I 20126, Milano, Italy
89879
INFN, Sezione di Milano Bicocca, I 20126, Milano, Italy
99879
Institute for Nuclear Research, MSP, 03680, Kyiv, Ukraine
* e-mail: luca.pattavina@mib.infn.it
Received:
13
December
2012
Accepted:
22
March
2013
Published online:
22
April
2013
For the first time ancient Roman lead was used to grow a crystal of PbWO4 , and this crystal has subsequently been used as a cryogenic particle detector. The new device provides independent readout of heat and scintillation light and is able to discriminate between interactions and alpha interactions down to few keV. Stringent limits on the
decays of the lead isotopes are presented. In particular a limit of
y at a 90% C.L. was evaluated for the
decay of 204Pb to 200Hg .
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013