https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2006-08-052-3
Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics II
AMS --A powerful tool for probing nucleosynthesis via long-lived radionuclides
1
VERA-Laboratory, Institut für Isotopenforschung und Kernphysik, Universität Wien, Währinger Strasse 17, A-1090, Wien, Austria
2
TRIUMF Laboratory, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, V6T 2A3, Vancouver, BC, Canada
* e-mail: anton.wallner@univie.ac.at
Received:
3
July
2005
Accepted:
20
December
2005
Published online:
23
March
2006
Well-established data on production-rates of long-lived radionuclides are important for the understanding and calculation of various nucleosynthesis processes. However, lack of information exists for a list of nuclides as pointed out by nuclear-data requests. In addition, the search for supernova (SN)-produced radionuclides will give an improved insight into explosive scenarios. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) represents a technique, which is capable to quantify such long-lived radionuclides using mass spectrometric methods. The potential of AMS is presented here as a powerful tool for probing nucleosynthesis. Applications of AMS are exemplified for a few specific cases: the detection of extraterrestrial radioactivity on Earth in terrestrial archives as a signature of nearby SN explosions, and the measurement of cross-sections, as an important ingredient for stellar as well as nuclear model calculations.
PACS: 07.75.+h Mass spectrometers – / 26.20.+f Hydrostatic stellar nucleosynthesis – / 26.30.+k Nucleosynthesis in novae, supernovae and other explosive environments – / 26.35.+c Big Bang nucleosynthesis –
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2006