New determination of double- β -Decay properties in 48Ca: High-precision Qββ -Value measurement and improved nuclear matrix element calculations

A. A. Kwiatkowski, T. Brunner, J. D. Holt, A. Chaudhuri, U. Chowdhury, M. Eibach, J. Engel, A. T. Gallant, A. Grossheim, M. Horoi, A. Lennarz, T. D. Macdonald, M. R. Pearson, B. E. Schultz, M. C. Simon, R. A. Senkov, V. V. Simon, K. Zuber, J. Dilling

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42 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a direct measurement of the Qββ value of the neutrinoless double-β-decay candidate 48Ca at the TITAN Penning-trap mass spectrometer, with the result that Qββ=4267.98(32)keV. We measured the masses of both the mother and daughter nuclides, and in the latter case found a 1 keV deviation from the literature value. In addition to the Qββ value, we also present results of a new calculation of the neutrinoless double-β-decay nuclear matrix element of 48Ca. Using diagrammatic many-body perturbation theory to second order to account for physics outside the valence space, we constructed an effective shell-model double-β-decay operator, which increased the nuclear matrix element by about 75% compared with that produced by the bare operator. The new Qββ value and matrix element strengthen the case for a 48Ca double-β-decay experiment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number045502
JournalPhysical Review C - Nuclear Physics
Volume89
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 9 2014
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science FoundationPHY-1068217
National Science Foundation1068217
National Science Foundation

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