Search for double $$\beta $$-decay modes of $$^{64}$$Zn using purified zinc

Autor: S. Di Domizio, G. Pessina, Yu.V. Gorbenko, M. Beretta, Ezio Previtali, M. Vignati, L. Gironi, S. Nisi, V.D. Virich, Claudio Gotti, Francesca Bellini, S.S. Nagorny, Davide Chiesa, Claudia Tomei, L. Pattavina, M. Clemenza, L. Cardani, Stefano Pirro, Matthias Laubenstein, L. Pagnanini, K. Schäffner, C. Rusconi, Ioan Dafinei, E. Celi, N. Casali, D. A. Solopikhin, Paolo Carniti, G.P. Kovtun, F. Ferroni, A. P. Shcherban
Přispěvatelé: Bellini, F, Beretta, M, Cardani, L, Carniti, P, Casali, N, Celi, E, Chiesa, D, Clemenza, M, Dafinei, I, Di Domizio, S, Ferroni, F, Gironi, L, Gorbenko, Y, Gotti, C, Kovtun, G, Laubenstein, M, Nagorny, S, Nisi, S, Pagnanini, L, Pattavina, L, Pessina, G, Pirro, S, Previtali, E, Rusconi, C, Schaffner, K, Shcherban, A, Solopikhin, D, Virich, V, Tomei, C, Vignati, M
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: The European Physical Journal C. 81
ISSN: 1434-6052
1434-6044
DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-08918-y
Popis: The production of ultra-pure raw material is a crucial step to ensure the required background level in rare event searches. In this work, we establish an innovative technique developed to produce high-purity (99.999%) granular zinc. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the refining procedure by measuring the internal contaminations of the purified zinc with a high-purity germanium detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. The total activity of cosmogenic activated nuclides is measured at the level of a few mBq/kg, as well as limits on naturally occurring radionuclides are set to less than mBq/kg. The excellent radiopurity of the zinc sample allows us to search for electron capture with positron emission and neutrinoless double electron capture of $$^{64}$$ 64 Zn, setting the currently most stringent lower limits on their half-lives, $$T_{1/2}^{\varepsilon \beta ^+} > 2.7\times 10^{21}~\text {year}$$ T 1 / 2 ε β + > 2.7 × 10 21 year (90% CI), and $$T_{1/2}^{0\nu 2\varepsilon }> 2.6\times 10^{21}~\text {year}$$ T 1 / 2 0 ν 2 ε > 2.6 × 10 21 year (90% CI), respectively.
Databáze: OpenAIRE