Precise 113Cd decay spectral shape measurement and interpretation in terms of possible quenching

I. Bandac; L. Bergé; J. M. Calvo-Mozota; P. Carniti; M. Chapellier; F. A. Danevich; T. Dixon; L. Dumoulin; F. Ferri; A. Giuliani; C. Gotti; Ph. Gras; D. L. Helis; L. Imbert; H. Khalife; V. V. Kobychev; J. Kostensalo; P. Loaiza; P. de Marcillac; S. Marnieros; C. A. Marrache-Kikuchi; M. Martinez; C. Nones; E. Olivieri; A. Ortiz de Solórzano; G. Pessina; D. V. Poda; J. A. Scarpaci; J. Suhonen; V. I. Tretyak; M. Zarytskyy; A. Zolotarova

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13538-3

2023 Impact factor 4.2

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2024) 84: 1158
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13538-3

Regular Article

Precise ¹¹³Cd $β$ $\beta$ decay spectral shape measurement and interpretation in terms of possible $g_{A}$ quenching

I. Bandac¹, L. Bergé², J. M. Calvo-Mozota¹^,3^,4, P. Carniti⁵, M. Chapellier², F. A. Danevich⁶^,7, T. Dixon²^,15^,15, L. Dumoulin², F. Ferri⁸, A. Giuliani², C. Gotti⁵, Ph. Gras⁸, D. L. Helis⁸^,16^,16, L. Imbert²^a, H. Khalife⁸, V. V. Kobychev⁶, J. Kostensalo⁹, P. Loaiza², P. de Marcillac², S. Marnieros², C. A. Marrache-Kikuchi², M. Martinez¹⁰^,11, C. Nones⁸, E. Olivieri², A. Ortiz de Solórzano¹⁰, G. Pessina⁵, D. V. Poda², J. A. Scarpaci², J. Suhonen¹²^,13, V. I. Tretyak⁶^,14, M. Zarytskyy⁶ and A. Zolotarova⁸

¹ Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc, 22880, Canfranc-Estación, Spain
² Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, 91405, Orsay, France
³ Escuela Superior de Ingeniería, Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Internacional de Valencia-VIU, 46002, Valencia, Spain
⁴ Escuela Superior de Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, 26006, Logroño, Spain
⁵ INFN, Sezione di Milano-Bicocca, 20126, Milan, Italy
⁶ Institute for Nuclear Research of NASU, 03028, Kyiv, Ukraine
⁷ INFN, Sezione di Roma, P.le Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome, Italy
⁸ IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁹ Natural Resources Institute Finland, Yliopistokatu 6B, 80100, Joensuu, Finland
¹⁰ Centro de Astropartículas y Física de Altas Energías, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain
¹¹ ARAID Fundación Agencia Aragonesa para la Investigación y el Desarrollo, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain
¹² Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014, Jyvaskyla, Finland
¹³ International Centre for Advanced Training and Research in Physics, P.O. Box MG12, 077125, Bucharest-Măgurele, Romania
¹⁴ INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67100, Assergi (AQ), Italy
¹⁵ University College London, London, UK
¹⁶ Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi, Italy

^a leonard.imbert@ijclab.in2p3.fr

Received: 19 July 2024
Accepted: 25 October 2024
Published online: 15 November 2024

Abstract

Highly forbidden $β$ $\beta$ decays provide a sensitive test to nuclear models in a regime in which the decay goes through high spin-multipole states, similar to the neutrinoless double- $β$ $\beta$ decay process. There are only 3 nuclei (⁵⁰V, ¹¹³Cd, ¹¹⁵In) which undergo a $4^{th}$ $4^\textrm{th}$ forbidden non-unique $β$ $\beta$ decay. In this work, we compare the experimental ¹¹³Cd spectrum to theoretical spectral shapes in the framework of the spectrum-shape method. We measured with high precision, with the lowest energy threshold and the best energy resolution ever, the $β$ $\beta$ spectrum of ¹¹³Cd embedded in a 0.43 kg ${CdWO}_{4}$ $\hbox {CdWO}_4$ crystal, operated over 26 days as a bolometer at low temperature in the Canfranc underground laboratory (Spain). We performed a Bayesian fit of the experimental data to three nuclear models (IBFM-2, MQPM and NSM) allowing the reconstruction of the spectral shape as well as the half-life. The fit has two free parameters, one of which is the effective weak axial-vector coupling constant, $g_{A}^{eff}$ $g_A^{\text {eff}}$ , which resulted in $g_{A}^{eff}$ $g_A^{\text {eff}}$ between 1.0 and 1.2, compatible with a possible quenching. Based on the fit, we measured the half-life of the ¹¹³Cd $β$ $\beta$ decay including systematic uncertainties as $7 . 73_{- 0.57}^{+ 0.60} \times 10^{15}$ $7.73^{+0.60}_{-0.57} \times 10^{15}$ yr, in agreement with the previous experiments. These results represent a significant step towards a better understanding of low-energy nuclear processes.

Present address: University College London, London, UK

Present address: Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi, Italy

© The Author(s) 2024

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