High-temperature $^{205}$Tl decay clarifies $^{205}$Pb dating in early Solar System

Leckenby, Guy; Sidhu, Ragandeep Singh; Chen, Rui Jiu; Mancino, Riccardo; Szányi, Balázs; Bai, Mei; Battino, Umberto; Blaum, Klaus; Brandau, Carsten; Cristallo, Sergio

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08130-4

High-temperature $^{205}$ Tl decay clarifies $^{205}$ Pb dating in early Solar System

Guy Leckenby
(
- TRIUMF and
- British Columbia U.
)
,
Ragandeep Singh Sidhu
(
)
,
Rui Jiu Chen
(
)
,
Riccardo Mancino
(
- Charles U. and
- Darmstadt, GSI and
- Darmstadt, Tech. U.
)
,
Balázs Szányi
(
- Szeged U. and
- Konkoly Observ. and
- MTA-DE, Debrecen
)

Nov 13, 2024

6 pages

Published in:

Nature 635 (2024) 8038, 321-326

Published: Nov 13, 2024

e-Print:

2411.08856 [nucl-ex]

DOI:

10.1038/s41586-024-08130-4

View in:

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Abstract: (Springer)

Radioactive nuclei with lifetimes on the order of millions of years can reveal the formation history of the Sun and active nucleosynthesis occurring at the time and place of its birth

^{1,2}

. Among such nuclei whose decay signatures are found in the oldest meteorites,

^{205}

Pb is a powerful example, as it is produced exclusively by slow neutron captures (the s process), with most being synthesized in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars

^{3–5}

. However, making accurate abundance predictions for

^{205}

Pb has so far been impossible because the weak decay rates of

^{205}

Pb and

^{205}

Tl are very uncertain at stellar temperatures

^{6,7}

. To constrain these decay rates, we measured for the first time the bound-state β

^{−}

decay of fully ionized

^{205}

Tl

^{81+}

, an exotic decay mode that only occurs in highly charged ions. The measured half-life is 4.7 times longer than the previous theoretical estimate

^{8}

and our 10% experimental uncertainty has eliminated the main nuclear-physics limitation. With new, experimentally backed decay rates, we used AGB stellar models to calculate

^{205}

Pb yields. Propagating those yields with basic galactic chemical evolution (GCE) and comparing with the

^{205}

Pb/

^{204}

Pb ratio from meteorites

^{9–11}

, we determined the isolation time of solar material inside its parent molecular cloud. We find positive isolation times that are consistent with the other s-process short-lived radioactive nuclei found in the early Solar System. Our results reaffirm the site of the Sun’s birth as a long-lived, giant molecular cloud and support the use of the

^{205}

Pb–

^{205}

Tl decay system as a chronometer in the early Solar System.

Note:

21 pages and 11 figures/tables. Published in Nature (2024)

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High-temperature 205^{205}205Tl decay clarifies 205^{205}205Pb dating in early Solar System