Bremsstrahlung in α decay reexamined

Author

H. Boie
Heiko Scheit
Ulrich D. Jentschura, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
F. Kock
M. Lauer
A. I. Milstein
Ivan S. Terekhov
Dirk Schwalm

Abstract

A high-statistics measurement of bremsstrahlung emitted in the α decay of ²¹⁰Po has been performed, which allows us to follow the photon spectra up to energies of ~500keV. The measured differential emission probability is in good agreement with our theoretical results obtained within the quasiclassical approximation as well as with the exact quantum mechanical calculation. It is shown that, due to the small effective electric dipole charge of the radiating system, a significant interference between the electric dipole and quadrupole contributions occurs, which is altering substantially the angular correlation between the α particle and the emitted photon.

Recommended Citation

H. Boie et al., "Bremsstrahlung in α decay reexamined," Physical Review Letters, vol. 99, no. 2, pp. 022505-1 - 022505-4, American Physical Society (APS), Jul 2007.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.022505

Department(s)

Physics

Keywords and Phrases

Angle Measurement; Photons; Probability; Quantum Theory; Statistics; Angular Correlation; Differential Emission Probability; Electric Dipoles; Photon Spectra; Polonium

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0031-9007

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2007 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jul 2007