New Experimentally Observable Gamma-ray Emissions from 241Am Nuclear Decay

With the high resolution of microcalorimeter detectors, previously unresolvable gamma-ray lines are now clearly resolvable. A careful measurement of Am-241 decay with a large array of gamma-ray microcalorimeters has revealed never before seen or predicted gamma lines at 207.72 +/- 0.02 keV and 208.2...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Koehler, Katrina E, Yoho, Michael D, Carpenter, Matthew H, Croce, Mark P, Mercer, David J, Smith, Chandler M, Tollefson, Aidan D, Vo, Duc T, Famiano, Michael A, Nesaraja, Caroline D, Becker, Daniel T, Gard, Johnathon D, Wessels, Abigail L, Bennett, Douglas A, Mates, J A B, Ortiz, Nathan J, Schmidt, Daniel R, Ullom, Joel N, Vale, Leila R
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 19.08.2024
Subjects
Algorithms
Calorimeters
Decay
Gamma emission
Gamma rays
Multiplexing
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Summary:With the high resolution of microcalorimeter detectors, previously unresolvable gamma-ray lines are now clearly resolvable. A careful measurement of Am-241 decay with a large array of gamma-ray microcalorimeters has revealed never before seen or predicted gamma lines at 207.72 +/- 0.02 keV and 208.21 +/- 0.01 keV. These results were made possible by new microwave-multiplexing readout to increase the array size and improved analysis algorithms to eliminate spectral artifacts. We suggest nuclear levels from which these gamma-rays might originate and calculate branching ratios for these transitions from measurements of both mixed Pu-Am standards and a pure Am-241 source. These results have implications for nuclear material safeguards and accounting, particularly for microcalorimeter gamma spectrometers, which are now being adopted in nuclear safeguards analytical laboratories.
ISSN:2331-8422