Scheme of the β-decay of 234Th

Abstract

The scheme of the β-decay of ²³⁴Th is still not completely clear. Only the upper bound (10 keV) of the energy of the isomeric transition from level T_1/2 = 1.17 min of the ²³⁴Pa nucleus is known, and the correspondence between gamma quanta of several energies emitted in the β-decay of ²³⁴Th and specific nuclear levels of ²³⁴Pa has not been established. In this work, the isomeric transition energy of 2.6 ± 0.5 keV is determined via the γ-spectrometry of a ²³⁴Th source in γγ-coincidences, and a new ²³⁴Pa level populated in the β-decay of ²³⁴Th is introduced.