List of Known Double-beta Decay Isotopes
There are 35 naturally occurring isotopes that are capable of undergoing double-beta decay. However, only twelve isotopes have been experimentally observed undergoing two-neutrino double-beta decay:
48Ca, 76Ge, 82Se,96Zr, 100Mo, 116Cd, 128Te, 130Te, 130Ba, 136Xe, 150Nd, and 238U.
Many isotopes are, in theory, capable both of double-beta decay and other decays. In most cases, the double-beta decay is so rare as to be nearly impossible to observe against the background of other radiation. However, the double-beta decay rate of 238U (also an alpha emitter) has been measured radiochemically; 238Pu is produced by this type of radioactivity. Two of the nuclides (48Ca and 96Zr) from the list above can decay also via single beta decay but this decay is extremely suppressed and has never been observed.
Read more about this topic: Double Beta Decay
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list and/or decay:
“Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives—from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango—with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists’ stage.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“All is possible,
Who so list believe;
Trust therefore first, and after preve,
As men wed ladies by license and leave,
All is possible.”
—Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?–1542)
“It had been a moving, tranquil apotheosis, immersed in the transfiguring sunset glow of decline and decay and extinction. An old family, already grown too weary and too noble for life and action, had reached the end of its history, and its last utterances were sounds of music: a few violin notes, full of the sad insight which is ripeness for death.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)