UC Berkeley

Recent discussions about the origin of the so-called gallium anomaly have motivated a remeasurement of the half-life of Ge71. We have conducted three separate measurements using dedicated planar Ge detectors - one with Fe55 as a standard, one with Co57 as a standard, and one standalone Ge71 measurement. Our results yield a half-life of 11.468±0.008 days, which is consistent with, but significantly more precise than, the currently accepted value. With this experiment, the potential explanation of the gallium anomaly being due to an unexpectedly long Ge71 half-life has been ruled out, leaving the anomaly's origin as an open question.