https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2013-13092-9
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Lifetime measurements of 214Po and 212Po with the CTF liquid scintillator detector at LNGS
19922
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università and INFN, 20133, Milano, Italy
29922
Chemical Engineering Department, Princeton University, 08544, Princeton, NJ, USA
39922
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
49922
Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, INFN, 67010, Assergi, Italy
59922
Physics Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 24061, Blacksburg, VA, USA
69922
Physics Department, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, MA, USA
79922
Physics Department, Princeton University, 08544, Princeton, NJ, USA
89922
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università and INFN, 16146, Genova, Italy
99922
Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119899, Moscow, Russia
109922
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università and INFN, I-44100, Ferrara, Italy
119922
St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188350, Gatchina, Russia
129922
NRC Kurchatov Institute, 123182, Moscow, Russia
139922
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980, Dubna, Russia
149922
APC, Univ. Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/Irfu, Obs de Paris, Sorbonne, Paris Cité, France
159922
Physik Department, Technische Universität München, 85747, Garching, Germany
169922
Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research, 06380, Kiev, Ukraine
179922
Sezione di Cagliari, INFN, I-09042, Monserrato, Italy
189922
Max-Plank-Institut für Kernphysik, 69029, Heidelberg, Germany
199922
M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30059, Krakow, Poland
209922
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, 60510, Batavia, IL, USA
219922
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università and INFN, 06123, Perugia, Italy
* e-mail: marcello.lissia@ca.infn.it
Received:
11
January
2013
Revised:
23
May
2013
Accepted:
22
June
2013
Published online:
18
July
2013
We have studied the α-decays of 214Po into 210Pb and of 212Po into 208Pb tagged by the coincidence with the preceding β-decays from 214Bi and 212Bi, respectively. The 222Rn, 232Th, and 220Rn sources used were sealed inside quartz vials and inserted in the Counting Test Facility at the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. We find that the mean lifetime of 214Po is (236.00 ± 0.42(stat) ± 0.15(syst)) μs and that of 212Po is (425.1 ± 0.9(stat) ± 1.2(syst)) ns. Our results, obtained from data with signal-to-background ratio larger than 1000, reduce the overall uncertainties and are compatible with previous measurements.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013