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Search for $β$ -delayed fission of ${}^{178}{Au}^{g, m}$ and an updated systematics in the region of neutron-deficient nuclei

B. Andel ^1,*, A. N. Andreyev ^2,3, S. Bara ⁴, T. E. Cocolios ⁴, J. G. Cubiss ^2,†, C. Page ², P. Van Duppen ⁴, A. Algora ^5,6, S. Antalic ¹ et al. (IDS Collaboration)

S. Antalic ¹, M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis ⁷, M. Au ⁷, R. A. Bark ⁸, A. Barzakh ⁹, M. J. G. Borge ¹⁰, A. Camaiani ^4,11,12, K. Chrysalidis ⁷, C. Costache ¹³, H. De Witte ⁴, D. V. Fedorov ⁹, V. N. Fedosseev ⁷, L. M. Fraile ¹⁴, H. O. U. Fynbo ¹⁵, R. Grzywacz¹⁶, R. Heinke ⁷, J. Johnson ⁴, P. M. Jones ⁸, D. S. Judson ¹⁷, D. T. Kattikat Melcom ^18,‡, M. M. Khan ^4,19, J. Klimo ⁴, A. Korgul ²⁰, M. Labiche ²¹, R. Lică ¹³, M. Madurga ¹⁶, N. Marginean¹³, P. Marini ^18,‡, B. A. Marsh^7,§, C. Mihai ¹³, J. Mišt ¹, P. L. Molkanov ⁹, E. Nácher⁵, C. Neacsu ¹³, J. N. Orce ²², R. D. Page ¹⁷, J. Pakarinen ^23,24, P. Papadakis ²¹, S. Pascu ¹³, A. Perea¹⁰, M. Piersa-Siłkowska ²⁰, Zs. Podolyák ²⁵, C. Schmitt ²⁶, M. D. Seliverstov⁹, A. Sitarčík ¹, E. Stamati^7,27, A. Stoica ¹³, A. Stott², M. Stryjczyk ^23,24,28, O. Tengblad ¹⁰, I. Tsekhanovich ¹⁸, A. Turturica ¹³, J. M. Udías ¹⁴, N. Warr ²⁹, and A. Youssef⁴ (IDS Collaboration)

¹Department of Nuclear Physics and Biophysics, Comenius University in Bratislava, 84248 Bratislava, Slovakia
²School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
³Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai-mura, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan
⁴KU Leuven, Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁵Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, E-46071 Valencia, Spain
⁶Institute of Nuclear Research (ATOMKI), P.O. Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
⁷CERN, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland
⁸iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, P.O. Box 722, Somerset West 7129, South Africa
⁹Affiliated with an institute covered by a cooperation agreement with CERN at the time of the experiment
¹⁰Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, Serrano 113 bis, E-28006 Madrid, Spain
¹¹Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Firenze, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
¹²Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
¹³“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for R & D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering, RO-077125 Bucharest, Romania
¹⁴Grupo de Física Nuclear and IPARCOS, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, CEI Moncloa, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
¹⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
¹⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37966, USA
¹⁷Oliver Lodge Laboratory, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZE, United Kingdom
¹⁸Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, LP2I, UMR 5797, F-33170 Gradignan, France
¹⁹IMT Atlantique, Nantes Université, CNRS-IN2P33, Nantes, France
²⁰Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, PL 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
²¹STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, Warrington WA4 4AD, United Kingdom
²²Department of Physics, University of the Western Cape, P/B X17 Bellville 7535, South Africa
²³Accelerator Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
²⁴Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
²⁵Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
²⁶Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), F-67000 Strasbourg, France
²⁷University of Ioannina, P.O. Box 1186, Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
²⁸Institut Laue-Langevin, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, F-38042 Grenoble, France
²⁹Institut für Kernphysik, Universität zu Köln, D-50937 Köln, Germany

^*Contact author: boris.andel@fmph.uniba.sk
^†Present address: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom.
^‡Present address: Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds, CNRS/IN2P3-CEA/DRF, 14000 Caen, France.
^§Deceased.

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Phys. Rev. C 113, 014325 – Published 26 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/swd1-ydlm

Abstract

A search for a $β$ -delayed fission ( $β DF$ ) decay branch of isomerically pure samples of ${}^{178}{Au}^{g}$ and ${}^{178}{Au}^{m}$ was performed at the ISOLDE-CERN facility. Two complementary detection systems capable of registering $α$ decays and fission fragments, the ISOLDE Decay Station and the ASET (Alpha SETup), were used. Despite very high statistics of produced ${}^{178}{Au}$ nuclei, no fission fragments were detected. Upper limits of $β DF$ probabilities of $P_{β DF} ({}^{178}{Au}^{g}) < 1.11 (2) \times 10^{- 8}$ and $P_{β DF} ({}^{178}{Au}^{m}) < 9.7 (2) \times 10^{- 9}$ were determined. Corresponding lower limits of $β DF$ partial half-lives were deduced as well, and the results are discussed in the context of experimental systematics of $β DF$ in the neutron-deficient region of the nuclear chart.

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Phys. Rev. C 113, 014325– Published 26 January, 2026

Vol. 113, Iss. 1 — January 2026

Received 25 August 2025
Accepted 20 November 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/swd1-ydlm

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by CERN.

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Search for $β$ -delayed fission of ${}^{178}{Au}^{g, m}$ and an updated systematics in the region of neutron-deficient nuclei

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Search for β-delayed fission of Aug,m178 and an updated systematics in the region of neutron-deficient nuclei

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Search for $β$ -delayed fission of ${}^{178}{Au}^{g, m}$ and an updated systematics in the region of neutron-deficient nuclei