Speaker
Description
We thoroughly investigate electron capture (EC) ratios for a wide range of atomic numbers. The study utilizes a comprehensive computational method that considers important atomic effects such as electron screening, overlap and exchange corrections, shake-up and shake-off processes. The electron wave functions are computed with the Dirac-Hartree-Fock-Slater (DHFS) method, which was chosen after conducting a systematic comparison with other methods and experimental data in terms of binding energies, atomic relaxation energies, and Coulomb amplitudes. An important ingredient of the calculations is an energy balance that utilizes atomic masses, eliminating the need for approximations in determining the electron total binding energy and enabling a more precise determination of the neutrino energy. Consequently, the predicted capture ratios obtained through this method exhibit improved agreement with experimental data, particularly for low-energy transitions. Furthermore, in addition to considering the uncertainties on the measured Q values and nuclear energies, this paper also incorporates the uncertainties on the atomic relaxation energies to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the uncertainties of the EC observables. Finally, the study presents detailed results for nuclei of practical significance in nuclear medicine and exotic physics investigations involving liquid Xenon detectors (67Ga, 111In, 123I, 125I, and
125Xe).
