RADIOACTIVE DECAY OF W188

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Abstract
The half-life of W188 has been measured to be 69.4 ± 0.5 days. The gamma radiations emitted in the decay of W188 have been studied with an NaI scintillation spectrometer, and the beta radiations by absorption in aluminum. Three gamma rays with energies of 0.290 ± 0.005, 0.227 ± 0.005, and 0.063 ± 0.005 Mev were observed. The intensities of these gamma rays were measured relative to those gamma rays from the daughter activity Re188. The W188 gamma intensities thus deduced are respectively 0.002, 0.001, and about 0.001 per disintegration. The 0.227 and 0.063 gamma rays are in coincidence. It logically follows from the gamma results that 99.3% of the beta radiations go to the ground state of Re188 with an energy of 0.36 ± 0.04 Mev (determined by Feather analysis), while about 0.4% go to an excited state at 0.290 Mev; an upper limit of 0.3% has been set for a beta transition to the 0.063 state. A decay scheme for W188 is proposed.