A measurement of hafnium foil using a modified ultra-low-background high purity detector with optimized sample-to-detector geometry was performed at Laboratori Nazionale del Gran Sasso. Radiopurity of the stock Hf foil was studied in detail, in addition to an analysis of data collected over 310 days to search for rare processes that can occur in natural Hf isotopes. Firstly, limits on alpha decays of all natural Hf isotopes to the first excited state of the daughter nuclides were established in the range of 1016-1018a (90% C.L.). Secondly, a search for modes of double electron capture and electron capture with positron emission in 174Hf was performed, yielding half-life limits 1016-1018a (90% C.L.). Lastly, novel dark matter-induced nuclear excitations in hafnium isotopes were investigated. For dark matter with 1 TeV/c2 mass, leading limits on the inelastic dark matter--nucleon cross section are set for mass splittings in the range 428 keV <δ< 473 keV.
@article{arxiv.2012.08339,
title = {A search for rare and induced nuclear decays in hafnium},
author = {B. Broerman and M. Laubenstein and S. Nagorny and N. Song and A. C. Vincent},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.08339},
year = {2021}
}