High-temperature 205Tl decay clarifies 205Pb dating in early Solar System

Radioactive nuclei with lifetimes on the order of millions of years can reveal the formation history of the Sun and active nucleosynthesis occurring at the time and place of its birth<sup>1,2</sup>. Among such nuclei whose decay signatures are found in the oldest meteorites, <sup>205</sup>Pb is a powerful example, as it is produced exclusively by slow neutron captures (the s process), with most being synthesized in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars<sup>3-5</sup>. However, making accurate abundance predictions for <sup>205</sup>Pb has so far been impossible because the weak decay rates of <sup>205</sup>Pb and <sup>205</sup>Tl are very uncertain at stellar temperatures<sup>6,7</sup>. To constrain these decay rates, we measured for the first time the bound-state β<sup>-</sup> decay of fully ionized <sup>205</sup>Tl<sup>81+</sup>, an exotic decay mode that only occurs in highly charged ions. The measured half-life is 4.7 times longer than the previous theoretical estimate<sup>8</sup> and our 10% experimental uncertainty has eliminated the main nuclear-physics limitation. With new, experimentally backed decay rates, we used AGB stellar models to calculate <sup>205</sup>Pb yields. Propagating those yields with basic galactic chemical evolution (GCE) and comparing with the <sup>205</sup>Pb/<sup>204</sup>Pb ratio from meteorites<sup>9-11</sup>, we determined the isolation time of solar material inside its parent molecular cloud. We find positive isolation times that are consistent with the other s-process short-lived radioactive nuclei found in the early Solar System. Our results reaffirm the site of the Sun's birth as a long-lived, giant molecular cloud and support the use of the <sup>205</sup>Pb-<sup>205</sup>Tl decay system as a chronometer in the early Solar System.

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Journal
Nature
Published
2024-11-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08130-4
Citations
17
Primary Topic
Nuclear physics research studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
11.21

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article

High-temperature 205Tl decay clarifies 205Pb dating in early Solar System

Y. H. Zhang, R. S. Sidhu, N. Petridis, Rui Jiu Chen et al.
17 citations
Nature
Nuclear physics research studies
11.21
article

High-temperature 205Tl decay clarifies 205Pb dating in early Solar System

Y. H. Zhang, R. S. Sidhu, N. Petridis, Rui Jiu Chen, O. Forstner, C. Brandau, S. Cristallo, Yu. A. Litvinov, E. Haettner, Andrés Yagüe López, R. Reifarth, D. Dmytriiev, U. Spillmann, W. Korten, T. Faestermann, C. Scheidenberger, Christopher Griffin, M. Pignatari, Thomas Neff, M. Trassinelli, A. Gumberidze, E. Menz, H. Weick, M. S. Sanjari, M. Wang, I. Dillmann, Maria Lugaro, Tejpreet Kaur, Th. Stöhlker, G. Leckenby, R. Mancino, P.‐M. Hillenbrand, B. S. Meyer, D. Vescovi, C. Kozhuharov, Y. Tanaka, B. Franczak, J. Glorius, H. Geißel, S. Purushothaman, S. Litvinov, G. Martı́nez-Pinedo, László Varga, T. Morgenroth, T. Dickel, K. Blaum, R. Gernhäuser, Balázs Szányi, K. Langanke, Amanda I. Karakas, Umberto Battino, J. Zhao, M. Bai, M. Steck, Ulrich Popp, Chiara Nociforo, Sergiy Trotsenko, Takayuki Yamaguchi, N. Kuzminchuk
article en
17 citations

Abstract

Radioactive nuclei with lifetimes on the order of millions of years can reveal the formation history of the Sun and active nucleosynthesis occurring at the time and place of its birth<sup>1,2</sup>. Among such nuclei whose decay signatures are found in the oldest meteorites, <sup>205</sup>Pb is a powerful example, as it is produced exclusively by slow neutron captures (the s process), with most being synthesized in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars<sup>3-5</sup>. However, making accurate abundance predictions for <sup>205</sup>Pb has so far been impossible because the weak decay rates of <sup>205</sup>Pb and <sup>205</sup>Tl are very uncertain at stellar temperatures<sup>6,7</sup>. To constrain these decay rates, we measured for the first time the bound-state β<sup>-</sup> decay of fully ionized <sup>205</sup>Tl<sup>81+</sup>, an exotic decay mode that only occurs in highly charged ions. The measured half-life is 4.7 times longer than the previous theoretical estimate<sup>8</sup> and our 10% experimental uncertainty has eliminated the main nuclear-physics limitation. With new, experimentally backed decay rates, we used AGB stellar models to calculate <sup>205</sup>Pb yields. Propagating those yields with basic galactic chemical evolution (GCE) and comparing with the <sup>205</sup>Pb/<sup>204</sup>Pb ratio from meteorites<sup>9-11</sup>, we determined the isolation time of solar material inside its parent molecular cloud. We find positive isolation times that are consistent with the other s-process short-lived radioactive nuclei found in the early Solar System. Our results reaffirm the site of the Sun's birth as a long-lived, giant molecular cloud and support the use of the <sup>205</sup>Pb-<sup>205</sup>Tl decay system as a chronometer in the early Solar System.

NatureVol. 635(8038)
Eötvös Loránd University (HU), Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (DE), Goethe University Frankfurt (DE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), TRIUMF (CA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (US), University of British Columbia (CA), Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (JP), GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE), University of Hull (GB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE), University of Victoria (CA), Charles University (CZ), University of Szeged (HU), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE), Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte (IT), Konkoly Observatory (HU), Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE), Sorbonne Université (FR), RIKEN (JP), Helmholtz Institute Mainz (DE), Collurania Teramo Observatory (IT), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities (HU), Institute of Modern Physics (CN), Institut des NanoSciences de Paris (FR), ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU), Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia (IT), Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers (FR), Panjab University (IN), Monash University (AU), Technical University of Munich (DE), Saitama University (JP), The University of Tokyo (JP), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE), Clemson University (US), University of Edinburgh (GB), FH Aachen (DE)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Sumitomo Foundation, University of Hull, Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics - Center for the Evolution of the Elements, European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Emberi Eroforrások Minisztériuma, Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal, National Nuclear Security Administration, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap, Office of International Science and Engineering, ExtreMe Matter Institute, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Los Alamos National Laboratory
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