Fine structure of strength functions for beta decays of atomic nuclei

Abstract

The β transition strength function S β(E) is the nuclear excitation energy distribution of moduli squared of the β-decay-type matrix elements. The function S β(E) determines the characteristics of β decay, the spectra of accompanying radiation, and the probabilities of delayed processes following the β decay. Until recently, tools widely used for experimental investigation of the S β(E) structure have been total absorption gamma spectrometers and total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy (TAGS) which could not provide high energy resolution. Development of experimental techniques allows nuclear spectroscopy methods with high energy resolution to be used for studying the fine structure of S β(E). A thorough investigation of this kind has been carried out for a number of nuclei produced at the YASNAPP-2 facility in Dubna. In this review, studies involving works on measuring the fine structure of S β(E) in spherical and deformed nuclei are analyzed. Modern nuclear spectroscopy methods made it possible to identify the splitting of peaks from nuclear deformation in S β(E) for Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions. The resonance nature of S β(E) for first-forbidden (FF) transitions in both spherical and deformed nuclei is experimentally proven. It is shown that for some nuclear excitation energies, FF transitions can be comparable in intensity with GT transitions. Criteria for verifying the completeness of nuclear decay schemes are considered. The S β(E) functions obtained by TAGS and by the high-resolution spectroscopy are compared.