High-precision measurement of the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi>He</mml:mi><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mn>6</mml:mn></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:math> half-life
Mohamad Kanafani, X. Fléchard, O. Naviliat-Cuncic, G. Chung, Sylvain Leblond, E. Liénard, X. Mougeot, G. Qúeḿener, Adriana Simancas, J. C. Thomas
Abstract
The half-life of $^{6}\mathrm{He}$ has been measured using a low-energy radioactive beam implanted in an ${\mathrm{YAlO}}_{3}$ Ce-doped inorganic scintillator and recording decay events in a $4\ensuremath{\pi}$ geometry. Events were time-stamped with a digital data acquisition system enabling a reliable control of dead-time effects and detector gain variations. The result, ${T}_{1/2}=(807.25\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.{16}_{\mathrm{stat}}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.{11}_{\mathrm{sys}}$) ms, provides the most precise value obtained so far and is consistent with the only previous measurement having a precision smaller than 0.1%. This resolves the long-standing discrepancy previously observed between two sets of measurements.