Studies on the double-β decay nucleus 64Zn using the (d,2He) reaction

The (d,He-2) charge-exchange reaction on the double-beta decay (beta beta) nucleus Zn-64 has been studied at an incident energy of 183 MeV. The two protons in the S-1(0) state (indicated as He-2) were both momentum analyzed and detected simultaneously by the BBS magnetic spectrometer and its position-sensitive detector. He-2 spectra with a resolution of about 115 keV (FWHM) have been obtained allowing identification of many levels in the residual nucleus Cu-64 with high precision. Zn-64 is one of the rare cases undergoing a beta beta decay in beta(+) direction. In the experiment presented here, Gamow-Teller (GT(+)) transition strengths have been extracted. Together with the GT(-) transition strengths from Ni-64(He-3,t) data to the same intermediate nucleus Cu-64, the nuclear matrix elements of the beta beta decay of Zn-64 have been evaluated. Finally, the GT(+/-) distributions are compared with shell-model calculations and a critical assessment is given of the various residual interactions presently employed for the pf shell.