Darmstadt 2008 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 27: Posters: Electron scattering and recombination
A 27.10: Poster
Thursday, March 13, 2008, 16:30–18:30, Poster C3
Nuclear lifetime prolongation in resonant electron recombination processes — •Adriana Pálffy1, Zoltan Harman1, Christophor Kozhuharov2, Carsten Brandau2, Christoph H. Keitel1, Werner Scheid3, and Thomas Stöhlker2 — 1MPI für Kernphysik, Heidelberg — 2Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt — 3Institut für Theoretische Physik, Giessen
Processes at the borderline between atomic and nuclear physics open the possibility to explore properties of exotic nuclei via experiments involving highly-charged ions. The coupling of nuclei to atomic shells in the process of nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) can lead to a number of nuclear effects.
In the resonant process of NEEC, the recombination of a continuum electron into a bound atomic shell leads to the excitation of the nucleus [1]. When occuring into an excited electronic bound state, NEEC is followed by fast x-ray emission, changing the electronic configuration of the ion. For some heavy highly-charged ions, the electronic decay suppresses the internal conversion decay channel and leads therefore to lifetime prolongation of the excited nuclear state and an increase of the NEEC resonance strengths of up to two orders of magnitude. Applications of these effects to the measurement of the not yet experimentally observed NEEC and their possible relevance to dense astrophysical plasmas are discussed.
[1] A. Pálffy, W. Scheid, Z. Harman, Phys. Rev. A 73, 012715 (2006)