Effects of Nuclear Hyperfine Mixing on <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mmultiscripts> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Th</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mprescripts/> <mml:none/> <mml:mrow
The triply charged thorium-229 ion (^{229}Th^{3+}) has been identified as a promising candidate for the development of ultraprecise nuclear clocks. In this Letter, we investigate how the electron structure of this ion, particularly the single valence electron, influences the nucleus through nuclear hyperfine mixing (NHM)-a phenomenon previously studied almost solely for highly charged ions. We show that NHM opens electric dipole (E1) transition channels, which can significantly enhance the efficiency of nuclear isomeric excitation by 2 orders of magnitude. Additionally, NHM accelerates the spontaneous decay rate of the nuclear isomeric state by 1% to 7%, depending on the specific hyperfine level involved.
Authors
- Xu Wang
- Anonymous
Institutions
- China Academy of Engineering Physics (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2026-02-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/8jhh-ktfy
- Primary Topic
- Nuclear physics research studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00