Precise branching ratio measurement for the superallowed β+ decay of 26 Si: Completion of a second mirror pair
As part of a continuing effort to test the unitarity of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, we have measured the branching ratio for the superallowed 0 + → 0 + β + -decay transition from 26 Si to be 0.7569(14), a result with 0.18% relative precision. With this result, the ft value for the transition is now established with comparable precision to the well-known superallowed transitions currently used in the determination of V ud . Furthermore, it also completes a second pair of mirror superallowed transitions, 26 Si → 26m Al and 26m Al → 26 Mg, the ratio of whose measured ft values provides a sensitive test of the method used to calculate the isospin-symmetry-breaking correction δ C needed to determine V ud . Like the previously measured ratio for the mass-38 mirror pair, the new result agrees well with the calculation based on Woods-Saxon radial wave functions and strengthens the case for rejecting the calculation that uses Hartree-Fock radial functions.