Elemental technetium and promethium as cosmic-ray clocks

The possibility of using elemental Tc (Z = 43) and Pm (Z = 61) as clocks to measure the mean cosmic-ray confinement time in the Galaxy, tau(epsilon) is considered. For this purpose it is necessary to estimate the unknown beta(+) decay half-lives of several Tc and Pm isotopes; these estimates are obtained using beta-decay systematics. In the case of Tc it is possible to estimate the half-lives sufficiently well and show that this element can indeed be used as a cosmic-ray clock; in the case of Pm the half-lives are too uncertain to permit any conclusion. In order to make meaningful measurement of tau(epsilon) using elemental Tc, a comsic-ray detector must have a charge resolution less than about 0.25e in the region around Tc, and enough collecting power to detect a few hundred Tc nuclei. 32 references