Impact of electron shell excitations on the energy spectrum of $β$-electrons in neutrinoless double-$β$ decay

Abstract

The electron shell of the daughter atoms often appears excited in the double-$β$ decays, which causes a change in the energy taken away by $β$-electrons. The average value and variance of the excitation energy of the electron shell of the daughter atom are calculated for the double-$β$ decay of germanium $_{32}^{76}\mathrm{Ge} \rightarrow _{34}^{76}\mathrm{Se}^*+2β^-(+~2\bar{ν_e})$ in both the Thomas--Fermi model and the relativistic Dirac--Hartree--Fock theory. Using the results obtained, a two-parameter model of the energy spectrum of $β$-electrons in the neutrinoless mode is constructed, taking into account reaction energy redistribution in the decay channels. The shift in total energy of $β$-electrons is found to be under 50 eV at a confidence level of 90%. The average excitation energy, on the other hand, is an order of magnitude higher and equal to $\sim 400$ eV, while the square root of the variance is equal to $\sim 2900$ eV, which is presumably explained by the contribution of the core electrons to the energy characteristics of the process. The probability is nearly saturated with excitations with a small amount of released energy, which is common for the outermost electrons. The distortion of the peak shape of the neutrinoless double-$β$ decay should be taken into consideration when analyzing data from detectors with a resolution of $\sim 100$ eV or higher.