High precision measurement of the ${}^6$He half-life

The half-life of ${}^6$He has been measured using a low energy radioactive beam implanted in a YAP scintillator and recording decay events in a 4$\pi$ geometry. Events were time-stamped with a digital data acquisition system enabling a reliable control of dead-time effects and detector gain variations. The result, $T_{1\mathrm{/}2}=(807.25\pm {0.16}_{\mathrm{s}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{t}}\pm {0.11}_{\mathrm{s}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{s}}$)~ms, provides the most precise value obtained so far and is consistent with the only previous measurement having a precision smaller than 0.1%. This resolves the longstanding discrepancy previously observed between two sets of measurements.