skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Can nuclear physics explain the anomaly observed in the internal pair production in the Beryllium-8 nucleus?

Journal Article · · Physics Letters B
ORCiD logo;

Recently the experimentalists in Krasznahorkay (2016) [1] announced observing an unexpected enhancement of the – pair production signal in one of the 8Be nuclear transitions. The subsequent studies have been focused on possible explanations based on introducing new types of particle. In this work, we improve the nuclear physics modeling of the reaction by studying the pair emission anisotropy and the interferences between different multipoles in an effective field theory inspired framework, and examine their possible relevance to the anomaly. The connection between the previously measured on-shell photon production and the pair production in the same nuclear transitions is established. These improvements, absent in the original experimental analysis, should be included in extracting new particle's properties from the experiment of this type. However, the improvements can not explain the anomaly. We then explore the nuclear transition form factor as a possible origin of the anomaly, and find the required form factor to be unrealistic for the 8Be nucleus. The reduction of the anomaly's significance by simply rescaling our predicted event count is also investigated.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-97ER-41014; FG02-97ER41014
OSTI ID:
1437722
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1499270
Journal Information:
Physics Letters B, Journal Name: Physics Letters B Vol. 773 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 0370-2693
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Netherlands
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 35 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Cited By (4)

X(16.7) production in electron–positron collision journal June 2018
New results on the 8 Be anomaly journal July 2018
New physics via pion capture and simple nuclear reactions journal November 2019
Search for a Hypothetical 16.7 MeV Gauge Boson and Dark Photons in the NA64 Experiment at CERN journal June 2018

Figures / Tables (10)

Fig. 1.(p. 2)figure Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.(p. 3)figure Fig. 2.
Table 1(p. 3)table Table 1
Fig. 3.(p. 4)figure Fig. 3.
Table 2(p. 4)table Table 2
Fig. 4.(p. 5)figure Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.(p. 5)figure Fig. 5.
Fig. 6.(p. 6)figure Fig. 6.
Fig. 7.(p. 6)figure Fig. 7.
Table 3(p. 6)table Table 3

Similar Records

Can a protophobic vector boson explain the ATOMKI anomaly?
Journal Article · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Physics Letters B · OSTI ID:1437722
Can long-range nuclear properties Be influenced by short range interactions? A chiral dynamics estimate
Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Physics Letters. B · OSTI ID:1437722
+3 more
Probing short-range nucleon-nucleon interactions with an electron-ion collider
Journal Article · Thu Apr 07 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physical Review C · OSTI ID:1437722

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS