Picosecond lifetime measurements of resonances using a thick-target invariant-mass technique

A new technique is presented for measuring the half-lives of resonances in the picosecond range using presently available invariant-mass apparatus and a thick target. For short-lived resonances, the energy losses of the decay fragments in the target material change their relative velocities, giving rise to a poor invariant-mass resolution. However, for longer-lived resonances that travel through the remaining target material before decaying outside of the target, this dominant contribution to the resolution is eliminated. The measured invariant-mass peak will then display a narrow peak from these events which sits on a wider structure associated with the remaining events that decay in the target. The fraction of the events in the narrow peak is related to the probability that the resonance leaves the target before decaying and hence is related to the lifetime. This technique is exercised for the 2.685-MeV resonance in $^{33}\mathrm{Cl}$ which decays by emitting an $f$-wave proton. A half-life of ${T}_{1/2}=5.{7}_{\ensuremath{-}2.5}^{+4.1}$ ps was measured, which is consistent with values inferred from other known properties of this resonance.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical review. C
Published
2025-09-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/ywt1-c5vt
Primary Topic
Atomic and Molecular Physics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Picosecond lifetime measurements of resonances using a thick-target invariant-mass technique

S. A. Gillespie, K. W. Brown, D. Bazin, B. Longfellow et al.
Physical review. C
Atomic and Molecular Physics
article

Picosecond lifetime measurements of resonances using a thick-target invariant-mass technique

S. A. Gillespie, K. W. Brown, D. Bazin, B. Longfellow, S. Biswas, D. Weißhaar, A. Gade, W. Reviol, A. Anthony, N. Dronchi, A. M. Hill, E. Rubino, S. N. Paneru, L. G. Sobotka, P. Farris, D. Rhodes, R. J. Charity, Jie Li
article en

Abstract

A new technique is presented for measuring the half-lives of resonances in the picosecond range using presently available invariant-mass apparatus and a thick target. For short-lived resonances, the energy losses of the decay fragments in the target material change their relative velocities, giving rise to a poor invariant-mass resolution. However, for longer-lived resonances that travel through the remaining target material before decaying outside of the target, this dominant contribution to the resolution is eliminated. The measured invariant-mass peak will then display a narrow peak from these events which sits on a wider structure associated with the remaining events that decay in the target. The fraction of the events in the narrow peak is related to the probability that the resonance leaves the target before decaying and hence is related to the lifetime. This technique is exercised for the 2.685-MeV resonance in $^{33}\mathrm{Cl}$ which decays by emitting an $f$-wave proton. A half-life of ${T}_{1/2}=5.{7}_{\ensuremath{-}2.5}^{+4.1}$ ps was measured, which is consistent with values inferred from other known properties of this resonance.

Physical review. CVol. 112(4)
Argonne National Laboratory (US), Washington University in St. Louis (US), Michigan State University (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 75%
Atomic and Molecular Physics
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