Abstract
The two protons emitted in the decay of have been individually observed for the first time in a time projection chamber. The total decay energy and the half-life measured in this work agree with the results obtained in a previous experiment. Angular and energy correlations between the two protons are determined and compared to theoretical distributions of a three-body model. Within the shell model framework, the relative decay probabilities show a strong contribution of the configuration for the two-proton emission. After , the present result on constitutes only the second case of a direct observation of the ground state two-proton decay of a long-lived isotope.
- Received 13 April 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.102502
© 2011 American Physical Society