Revisiting the Excitation of the Low-Lying ^{181m}Ta Isomer in Optical Laser-Generated Plasma

The excitation of the ^{181m}Ta isomer in the laser-plasma scenario was claimed to have been observed more than two decades ago. However, the reported experimental findings-and the respective high excitation rate-were later questioned as they could not be reproduced theoretically. The controversy has remained open ever since. In this work, we reinvestigate both theoretically and experimentally the ^{181m}Ta nuclear excitation in an optical laser-generated plasma. Experimentally we have found no evidence for such an excitation process as consistently predicted by previous and our theoretical models.