Exploring the Low Energy Structure of 136Cs and its Implications for Xenon Based Astroparticle Physics

In the past several decades, xenon-based detectors have established themselves as a staple in radiation detection, particularly in the areas of dark-matter and neutrino physics. The recent discovery of low-lying isomeric states in 136Cs, which are populated by the de-excitation of 136Cs’s low-lying 1⁺ state, indicates that charged-current interactions in these detectors, such as the interaction between solar neutrinos and 136Xe nuclei, will create time-delayed coincident signals which can be leveraged for remarkable background rejection. To further flesh out the details of these transitions, such as additional branches to these isomeric states, a recent study at TRIUMF used the GRIFFIN array to measure the de-excitation of 136Cs from its 8^- isomeric state. In this talk, we will share the preliminary results of this study and briefly comment on the effect these results have on the use of xenon detectors in astroparticle physics.