Evidence for the 2p decay of $^{45}$Fe from GSI
Résumé
In an experiment performed at the GSI Fragment Separator the decay of 45Fe has been investigated. Five 45Fe atoms were implanted in a silicon telescope mounted inside a high‐efficiency NaI detector. The implantation events were correlated with radioactive decay signals. One of them was consistent with the β decay of 45Fe accompanied by the emission of a 10 MeV proton. In each of the four other decay events, a signal corresponding to the emission of 1.1 ± 0.1 MeV particle(s) was recorded with no coincident signals in the NaI detector. This observation represents the first evidence for the two‐proton ground state decay of 45Fe. The time distribution of the observed decay events corresponds to a half‐life of 3.2−1.0+2.6 ms.