The influence of the unknown de-excitation pattern in the analysis of β-decay total absorption spectra

9 pages, 6 figures.-- PACS nrs.: 23.40.Hc; 29.30.Kv; 29.85.+c; 02.70.Uu.-- ISI Article Identifier: 000244576000021Printed version published on Feb 11, 2007.The method of analysis of β-decay total absorption spectra in order to obtain β-strength distributions is studied. The influence on the final result of unknown branching ratios in the electromagnetic de-excitation of levels in the daughter nucleus is investigated with the help of the statistical model of the population and decay of the nucleus. The total decay strength appears to be rather insensitive to assumptions on the branching ratios and the systematic uncertainty on the shape of the strength distribution is quantified.Research supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (FPA2001-0144-C05-02 and FPA2002-04181-C04-03).Peer reviewe