Lower Limit on the Double-Alpha Decay of
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 202501 – Published 12 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/y95w-7ztb
Abstract
A GAGG:Ce crystal scintillator contaminated by thorium was used to search for double- decay of . Considering that the daughter nucleus is with the half-life of 0.144 s, the time-amplitude method was utilized to search for events, which allows for a significant background reduction in the region of the expected effect. No double- decay events were observed, allowing us to set a lower limit on the decay half-life, at 90% confidence level, which exceeds the theoretical predictions of the symmetric model of decay ().