β-delayed proton emission from 11Be in effective field theory

Abstract

We calculate the rate of the rare decay 11Be into Be10+p+e−+ν¯e using Halo effective field theory, thereby describing the process of beta-delayed proton emission. We assume a shallow 1/2+ resonance in the 10Be−p system with an energy consistent with a recent experiment by Ayyad et al. and obtain bp=4.9−2.9+5.6(exp.)−0.8+4.0(theo.)×10−6 for the branching ratio of this decay, predicting a resonance width of ΓR=(9.0−3.3+4.8(exp.)−2.2+5.3(theo.)) keV. Our calculation shows that the experimental branching ratio and resonance parameters of Ayyad et al. are consistent with each other. Moreover, we analyze the general impact of a resonance on the branching ratio and demonstrate that a wide range of combinations of resonance energies and widths can reproduce branching ratios of the correct order. Thus, no exotic mechanism (such as beyond the standard model physics) is needed to explain the experimental decay rate.

Keywords

• Beta decay
• Effective field theory