Comment on the paper "Search for oscillation of the electron-capture decay probability of $^{142}$Pm" at arXiv:0807.0649v1

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.0807.2308
• Publication Date: 2008-01-01
• Authors: Litvinov, Yu. A.; Bosch, F.; Winckler, N.; Boutin, D.; Essel, H. G.; Faestermann, T.; Geissel, H.; Hess, S.; Kienle, P.; Knöbel, R.; Kozhuharov, C.; Kurcewicz, J.; Maier, L.; Beckert, K.; Brandau, C.; Chen, L.; Dimopoulou, C.; Fabian, B.; Fragner, A.; Haettner, E.; Hausmann, M.; Litvinov, S. A.; Mazzocco, M.; Montes, F.; Musumarra, A.; Nociforo, C.; Nolden, F.; Plass, W. R.; Prochazka, A.; Reda, R.; Reuschl, R.; Scheidenberger, C.; Steck, M.; Stöhlker, T.; Torilov, S.; Trassinelli, M.; Sun, B.; Weick, H.; Winkler, M.
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; FOS: Physical sciences; Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Experiment; 01 natural sciences

It is argued that orbital electron-capture decays of neutral $^{142}$Pm atoms implanted into the lattice of a solid (LBNL experiment) do not fulfil the constraints of true two-body beta decays, since momentum as well as energy of the final state are distributed among three objects, namely the electron neutrino, the recoiling daughter atom and the lattice phonons. To our understanding, this could be a reason for the non-observation of a periodic time modulation in the number of electron-capture decays of implanted neutral $^{142}$Pm atoms.<br/>2 p. comment on arXiv:0807.0649v1<br/>