Combinedatomic–nuclear decay

We analyzed in details the combined decay of the atomic-nuclear state, which consists of the excited 3/2+ level of 63 153 Eu and K hole, formed in the K capture by 153Gd. This decay proceeds in two stages. First, the nucleus transfers its energy to 2p electron, which flies into the continuum spectrum, and then returns into 1s hole, emitting γ quantum with the energy equal to the sum of energies of the nuclear and atomic transitions. We estimated the decay probability to be 2.2 × 10−13, that is much less than the recent experimental findings.