Possible Stimulation of NuclearαDecay by Superfluid Helium

Abstract

It is suggested that superfluid helium (condensate of 4 He atoms) may stimulate nuclear α decay in a situation when an α emitter moves through superfluid helium with fine-tuned velocity, so that the backward-emitted α particle is at rest in the laboratory frame. It is shown that the probability of stimulated α decay in this case may be sizable enough to be detected.

Electron shell and the alpha-decay

“…for the suppression factor -the ratio of the decay width of the bare nucleus and the neutral atom -follows directly from (4) and (5). It should be pointed out that we arrived at a surprising conclusion.…”

“…That is why this process attracts the smaller interest than other types of decay. Nevertheless in the last decade some theoretical papers devoted to this problem were published [5,6]. Moreover an interesting supporting evidence is obtained in the experiment presented in Ref.…”