1 research outputs found
Alpha-decay Rates of Yb and Gd in Solar Neutrino Detectors
The -decay rates for the nuclides Yb
and Gd have been estimated from transmission probabilities
in a systematic -nucleus potential and from an improved fit to
-decay rates in the rare-earth mass region. Whereas -decay of
Gd in natural gadolinium is a severe obstacle for the use of gadolinium
as a low-energy solar-neutrino detector, we show that
-decay does not contribute significantly to the background in a
ytterbium detector. An extremely long -decay lifetime of Yb
is obtained from calculation, which may be close to the sensitivity limit in a
low-background solar neutrino detector.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure; An author name was correcte