Reinvestigation of $^{222}\mathrm{U}$ in high-precision digital $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-decay spectroscopy: Solution to the reduced decay-width anomaly

Reinvestigation of ${}^{222}U$ in high-precision digital $α$ -decay spectroscopy: Solution to the reduced decay-width anomaly

H. Y. Lu (卢洪洋) et al.

Phys. Rev. C 108, 014302 – Published 5 July 2023

Abstract

The $α$ decay of ${}^{222}U$ was reinvestigated using a general least-square superpulse fitting algorithm dedicated to resolving pileup signals in the decay of very short-lived nuclei. The $α$ -particle energy of ${}^{222}U$ was revised to be 9246(8) keV, and the precision was improved significantly compared with previous result. Using the present $α$ energy, the anomaly in the systematics of the $α$ -decay reduced width $δ^{2}$ observed at ${}^{222}U$ in the $N_{p} N_{n}$ scheme is solved, all the $δ^{2}$ values converge into a smooth and narrow band with $N_{p} N_{n}$ up to $\approx 90$ in the northeast of ${}^{208}{Pb}$ .