Abstract: In beta-decay studies the determination of the decay probability to the ground state (g.s.) of the daughter nucleus often suffers from large systematic errors. The difficulty of the measurement is related to the absence of associated delayed gamma-ray emission. In this work we revisit the 4 pi gamma – beta method proposed by Greenwood and collaborators in the 1990s, which has the potential to overcome some of the experimental difficulties. Our interest is driven by the need to determine accurately the beta-intensity distributions of fission products that contribute significantly to the reactor decay heat and to the antineutrinos emitted by reactors. A number of such decays have large g.s. branches. The method is relevant for nuclear structure studies as well. Pertinent formulas are revised and extended to the special case of beta-delayed neutron emitters, and the robustness of the method is demonstrated with synthetic data. We apply it to a number of measured decays that serve as test cases and discuss the features of the method. Finally, we obtain g.s. feeding intensities with reduced uncertainty for four relevant decays that will allow future improvements in antineutrino spectrum and decay heat calculations using the summation method.

Abstract: Total absorption spectroscopy is used to investigate the beta-decay intensity to states above the neutron separation energy followed by gamma-ray emission in Br-87,Br-88 and Rb-94. Accurate results are obtained thanks to a careful control of systematic errors. An unexpectedly large. intensity is observed in all three cases extending well beyond the excitation energy region where neutron penetration is hindered by low neutron energy. The gamma branching as a function of excitation energy is compared to Hauser-Feshbach model calculations. For Br-87 and Br-88 the gamma branching reaches 57% and 20%, respectively, and could be explained as a nuclear structure effect. Some of the states populated in the daughter can only decay through the emission of a large orbital angular momentum neutron with a strongly reduced barrier penetrability. In the case of neutron-rich Rb-94 the observed 4.5% branching is much larger than the calculations performed with standard nuclear statistical model parameters, even after proper correction for fluctuation effects on individual transition widths. The difference can be reconciled by introducing an enhancement of 1 order of magnitude in the photon strength to neutron strength ratio. An increase in the photon strength function of such magnitude for very neutron-rich nuclei, if it proves to be correct, leads to a similar increase in the (n, gamma) cross section that would have an impact on r process abundance calculations.

Abstract: Using the high-resolution O-18(He-3, t)F-18 reaction at 0 degrees and at 140 MeV/nucleon, Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions were studied. A high energy resolution of 31 keV was achieved by applying dispersion matching techniques. The main part of the observed GT transition strength is concentrated in the transition to the F-18 ground state (g.s.). The absolute values of the reduced GT transition strengths, B(GT), were derived up to E-x = 12 MeV assuming proportionality between the B(GT) values and the reaction cross sections at 0 degrees. The B(GT) value obtained from the beta decay of F-18 (g.s.) -> O-18 (g.s.) was used to determine the proportionality constant. A total B(GT) of 4.06(5) was found and 76(1)% of the strength is concentrated to the ground state of F-18. The obtained B(GT) values were compared with those from the O-18(p, n) F-18 reaction and the mirror symmetric beta(+) decay of Ne-18 -> F-18. The candidates for 1(+) states with isospin T = 1 were identified by comparison with the O-18(p, p') data. The results of shell-model and quasiparticle-random-phase approximation calculations suggest constructive contributions of various configurations to the F-18 ground state, suggesting that this state is the low-energy super GT state.