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The nuclear two-photon or double-gamma ( $2\gamma$) decay is a second-order electromagnetic process whereby a nucleus in an excited state emits two gamma rays simultaneously. To be able to directly measure the $2\gamma$decay rate in the low-energy regime below the electron-positron pair-creation threshold, we combined the isochronous mode of a storage ring with Schottky resonant cavities. The newly developed technique can be applied to isomers with excitation energies down to $\sim 100\mathrm{keV}$and half-lives as short as $\sim 10\mathrm{ms}$. The half-life for the $2\gamma$decay of the first-excited $0^{+}$state in bare ${}^{72}\mathrm{Ge}$ions was determined to be 23.9(6) ms, which strongly deviates from expectations. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

Abstract Theβ-delayed neutron-emission probabilities of 28 exotic neutron-rich isotopes of Pm, Sm, Eu, and Gd were measured for the first time at RIKEN Nishina Center using the Advanced Implantation Detector Array (AIDA) and the BRIKEN neutron detector array. The existingβ-decay half-life (T_1/2) database was significantly increased toward more neutron-rich isotopes, and uncertainties for previously measured values were decreased. The new data not only constrain the theoretical predictions of half-lives andβ-delayed neutron-emission probabilities, but also allow for probing the mechanisms of formation of the high-mass wing of the rare-earth peak located atA≈ 160 in ther-process abundance distribution through astrophysical reaction network calculations. An uncertainty quantification of the calculated abundance patterns with the new data shows a reduction of the uncertainty in the rare-earth peak region. The newly introduced variance-based sensitivity analysis method offers valuable insight into the influence of important nuclear physics inputs on the calculated abundance patterns. The analysis has identified the half-lives of¹⁶⁸Sm and of several gadolinium isotopes as some of the key variables among the current experimental data to understand the remaining abundance uncertainty atA= 167–172.