Direct measurement of the L/K ratio in (7)Be electron capture.
The ratio of L- to K-shell electron captures in light nuclei is particularly sensitive to electron overlap and exchange effects. Calculations of these effects in (7)Be disagree by more than 20%. We report a measurement of the L/K ratio in (7)Be, using a cryogenic microcalorimeter which clearly separates L- and K-shell captures. The obtained L/K ratio of 0.040(6) is less than half that of existing predictions for free (7)Be. The discrepancy is likely due to in-medium effects distorting the L-shell electron orbitals.
Voytas
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PA
Physics Department, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio 45501-0720, USA.
Ternovan
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C
Galeazzi
M
M
McCammon
D
D
Kolata
J J
JJ
Santi
P
P
Peterson
D
D
Guimarães
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V
Becchetti
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Lee
M Y
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O'Donnell
T W
TW
Roberts
D A
DA
Shaheen
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