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Precise determination of electron-capture value of decay related to electron neutrino mass measurements
Phys. Rev. C 114, 035501 – Published 10 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bgj9-mzcq
Abstract
A high-precision measurement of the electron-capture (EC) decay value for the ground-state-to-ground-state (gs-to-gs) transition of to has been performed using the JYFLTRAP double Penning trap mass spectrometer. Employing the phase-imaging ion-cyclotron-resonance technique, the isomeric state of at 77.389(19) keV was resolved, and the cyclotron frequency ratio was measured between the isomer and the daughter nucleus . This yielded an isomer-to-ground-state value of 1116.64(19) keV and gs-to-gs value of 1039.25(19) keV. The atomic mass excess of was determined as , in excellent agreement with the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2020 (AME2020) but with a sixfold precision improvement. Using nuclear energy-level data for , we identified two low -value transitions of the ground state of to excited states of at 1024.280(50) keV ( keV, second forbidden non-unique) and 1029.650(50) keV ( keV, allowed). The allowed transition exhibits small energy differences [ keV, keV] from L1 and L2 shell binding energies, enhancing endpoint events. Partial half-lives and energy-release spectra were calculated using the self-consistent Dirac-Hartree-Fock-Slater method (including exchange, overlap, shake-up, and shake-off corrections) together with the nuclear shell model and showed enhanced endpoint sensitivity for the allowed transition to the state at 1029.650 keV. Including subthreshold atomic states in the spectral function enhances the EC rate near the zero-neutrino-momentum region by a factor of 5, enabling new approaches for low--value EC decays in neutrino mass studies.