Probing the low-lying level structure of 94Zr through β¯ decay

Abstract

Low-lying states of ⁹⁴Zr are populated following b^- decay of ⁹⁴Y, and the emitted g rays from ⁹⁴Zr are detected using the 8p spectrometer composed of 20 Compton-suppressed HPGe detectors. High- statistics coincidence data have been used for the placement of very weak decay branches in the level scheme. Combining the results of level lifetimes from a previous experiment and the precisely measured branching ratio values of the weak decay branches from the present experiment, it is possible to extract the B(E2) values for all the possible decay branches from a given level. These values are helpful for proper identification of the collective and non-collective states of ⁹⁴Zr. The experimental findings have been compared with predictions from shell-model calculations with a limited valence space; however, these calculations are inadequate in reproducing all of the measured spectroscopic quantities.