Comment on 'Time modulation of K-shell electron capture decay rates of H-like heavy ions at GSI experiments.'

Journal Article · Fri Apr 16 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Phy. Rev. Lett.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.159203· OSTI ID:982650

Lipkin, H J

A Comment on the Letter by A.N. Ivanov and P. Kienle, Physical Review Letters volume 103, Issue 6, 062502 (2009). The authors of the Letter offer a Reply to experimental data at GSI, the rates of the number of daughter ions, produced by the nuclear K shell electron capture decays of the H-like heavy ions with one electron in the K shell, such as {sup 140}Pr{sup 58+}, {sup 142}Pm{sup 60+}, and {sup 122}I{sup 52+}, are modulated in time with periods T{sub EC} of the order of a few seconds, obeying an A scaling T{sub EX}=A/20 s, where A is the mass number of the mother nuclei, and with amplitudes a{sub d {sup EC}}{approx}0.21. We show that these data can be explained in terms of the interference of two massive neutrino mass eigenstates. The appearance of the interference term is due to overlap of massive neutrino mass eigenstate energies and of the wave functions of the daughter ions in two-body decay channels, caused by the energy and momentum uncertainties introduced by time differential detection of the daughter ions in GSI experiments.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: SC
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 982650
• Report Number(s): ANL/PHY/JA-65446
• Journal Information: Phy. Rev. Lett., Journal Name: Phy. Rev. Lett. Journal Issue: Apr. 16, 2010 Vol. 104; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
AMPLITUDES
DATA
DECAY
DETECTION
EIGENSTATES
ELECTRON CAPTURE DECAY
ELECTRONS
ENERGY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAVY IONS
INTERFERENCE
IONS
K SHELL
MASS
MASS NUMBER
MODULATION
NEUTRINOS
NUCLEI
WAVE FUNCTIONS