Photoactivation of 180Tam and Its Implications for the Nucleosynthesis of Nature's Rarest Naturally Occurring Isotope
Abstract
The depopulation of the quasistable isomer in 180Ta with Jπ = 9- at Ex = 75 keV by resonant photoabsorption was investigated with intense bremsstrahlung. The results indicate a dramatic acceleration of the isomer decay to the short-lived Jπ = 1+ ground state under stellar s-process conditions. The consequences for a possible nucleosynthesis of nature's rarest isotope 180Ta within the s process are discussed.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- December 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.5242
- Bibcode:
- 1999PhRvL..83.5242B