In; A Rosetta stone for decays of -process nuclei

Xu, Z. Y.*; Andreyev, A. N.; 他47名*

Xu, Z. Y.*; Andreyev, A. N.; 47 of others*

The decays from both the ground state and a long-lived isomer of In were studied at the ISOLDE Decay Station (IDS). With a hybrid detection system sensitive to , , and neutron spectroscopy, the comparative partial half-lives (log ) have been measured for all their dominant -decay channels for the first time, including a low-energy Gamow-Teller transition and several first-forbidden (FF) transitions. Uniquely for such a heavy neutron-rich nucleus, their decays selectively populate only a few isolated neutron unbound states in Sn. Precise energy and branching-ratio measurements of those resonances allow us to benchmark -decay theories at an unprecedented level in this region of the nuclear chart. The results show good agreement with the newly developed large-scale shell model (LSSM) calculations. The experimental findings establish an archetype for the decay of neutron-rich nuclei southeast of Sn and will serve as a guide for future theoretical development aiming to describe accurately the key decays in the rapid-neutron capture (-) process.