The elusive β − p + decay was observed in 11 Be by directly measuring the emitted protons and their energy distribution for the first time with the prototype Active Target Time Projection Chamber (pAT-TPC) in an experiment performed at ISAC-TRIUMF. The measured β − p + branching ratio is orders of magnitude larger than any previous theoretical model predicted. This can be explained by the presence of a narrow resonance in 11 B above the proton separation energy.

Different concentrations of Dy3+ ions doped lithium zinc borosilicate glasses of chemical composition (30-x) B2O3 - 25 SiO2 -10 Al2O3 -30 LiF - 5 ZnO - x Dy2O3 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mol%) were prepared by the melt quenching technique. The prepared glasses were investigated through X-ray diffraction, optical absorption, photoluminescence and decay measurements. Intensities of absorption bands expressed in terms of oscillator strengths (f) were used to determine the Judd-Ofelt (J-O) intensity parameters Ωλ (λ = 2, 4 and 6). The evaluated J-O parameters were used to determine the radiative parameters such as transition probabilities (AR), total transition probability rate (AT), radiative lifetime (τR) and branching ratios (βR) for the excited 4F9/2 level of Dy3+ ions. The chromaticity coordinates determined from the emission spectra were found to be located in the white light region of CIE chromaticity diagram.

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In the Letter, we presented the first direct observation of the elusive β −-delayed proton emission (β − p þ) in 11 Be using a time projection chamber. There is an error in the extracted logðftÞ, which should read 2.8(4). The corrected logðftÞ value does not affect the conclusions presented in the Letter, since it was only used to assert the allowed character of the transition, a conclusion that is not changed. We would like to point out that, assuming a pure Gamow-Teller (GT) transition, it yields BðGTÞ ¼ 5.5 þ8.3 −3.3 , thus, including the BðGTÞ < 3 limit for a single neutron decay within one sigma. It should be noted that, due to the small energy window, the uncertainty in the resonance energy amounts to nearly 75% of the error budget for the logðftÞ value. Thus, a more precise measurement of the resonance energy could bring the B(GT) to within theoretical limits without significantly affecting the measured branching ratio.

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