Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T06:24:25.145Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: From Nuclear Physics to Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Walter Kutschera*
Affiliation:
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

One of my former teachers in nuclear physics, H Morinaga, once pointed out to me that essentially all the fundamental discoveries in nuclear physics were done without the use of accelerators. At first, this statement seemed extremely exaggerated, but now I think there is much truth in it. Once we build an instrument to investigate a specific problem we have already realized the existence of the problem and do not need the instrument to discover it. It is almost inevitable that the most interesting discoveries with a new technique will be made in fields for which the technique was not invented. Accelerators, built for nuclear physics, produced a great amount of data on nuclear structure and forces but the most fundamental discoveries were made in elementary particle physics. In any case, for almost 40 years the sole purpose of accelerators was to deliver beams of ever increasing energy and versatility to perform experiments after the accelerator. The analytic properties of accelerators were almost completely ignored even after the very early use of the Lawrence cyclotron at Berkeley as a mass spectrometer to discover 3He in nature (Alvarez and Cornog, 1939 a; b). The enormous analytic power of accelerators is now fully recognized, but the joy of the revival is mixed with some disappointment that the great prospects for studying 14C problems (Muller, 1977; Bennet et al, 1977; Nelson, Korteling, and Stott, 1977) have not yet been fulfilled. Fortunately, some of the papers of this conference show that a big step forward has been taken. But in view of what I said before it is not surprising that most of the studies were actually done with other radioisotopes.

Type
VIII. Technical Aspects of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Alväger, T and Naumann, RA, 1967, Search for stable heavy massive particles of positive integral charge: Physics Letters, v 24B, p 647648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvarez, LW and Cornog, R, 1939a, 3He in helium: Physical Rev, v 56, p 379; 1939b, Helium and hydrogen of mass 3: Physics Rev, v 56, p 613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, JR, 1978, The importance of direct detection of other radioisotopes, in : Rochester, New York, p 345352.Google Scholar
Beer, J Andrée, M Oeschger, H, Stauffer, B, Balzer, R, Bonani, G, Stoller, Ch, Suter, M, Wölfli, W, and Finkel, RC, 1983, Temporal 10Be variations in ice, in : Radiocarbon, v 25.Google Scholar
Bennet, CL, Beukens, RP, Clover, MR, Gove, HE, Liebert, RB, Litherland, AE, Purser, KH, Sondheim, WE, 1977, Radiocarbon dating using electrostatic accelerators: Negative ions provide the key: Science, v 198, p 508510.Google Scholar
Bethe, H, 1930, Zur Theorie des Durchgangs Schneller Korpuskularstrahlen durch Materie: Annals Physics, v 5, p 325400.Google Scholar
Bohr, N, 1940, Scattering and stopping of fission fragments: Physics Rev, v 58, p 654655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, L, Klein, J, Middleton, R, Sacks, IS, and Tera, F, in press, Beryllium-10 in island - arc volcanos and implications about subduction: Nature, in press.Google Scholar
Brown, L, Sacks, SI, Tera, F, Klein, J and Middleton, R, 1981, Beryllium-10 in continental sediments: Earth Planetary Sci Letters, v 55, p 370376 Google Scholar
Clausen, HB, 1973, Dating of polar ice by 32Si: Jour Glaciology, v 12, p 411416.Google Scholar
Demaster, DJ, 1980, The half-life of 32Si determined from a varved Gulf of California sediment core: Earth Planetary Sci Letters, v 48, p 209217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elmore, D, Anantaraman, N, Fulbright, HW, Gove, HE, Hans, HS, Nishiizumi, K, Murrel, MT, and Honda, M, 1980, Half-life of 32Si from tandem-accelerator mass spectrometry: Phys Rev Letters, v 45, p 589592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farwell, GW, Grootes, PM, Leach, DD, Schmidt, FH, and Stuiver, M, 1983, Current 14C measurements with the University of Washington FN tandem accelerator, in : Radiocarbon, v 25.Google Scholar
Gustavsson, S, Korschinek, G, Kubik, PW, Morinaga, H, Nolte, E, and Pravikoff, MS, 1981, Nachweis mikroskopischer Mengen von 36Cl: Ann rept tandem lab, Tech Univ Munich, p 104105.Google Scholar
Harbottle, G, Koehler, C, and Withnell, R, 1973, A differential counter for the determination of small differences in decay rates: Rev Sci Instruments, v 44, p 5559.Google Scholar
Henning, W, Kutschera, W, Smither, RK, and Yntema, JL, eds, 1981a, Symposium on accelerator mass spectrometry, Proc: Argonne, Illinois, Argonne Natl Lab Rept ANL/PHY-81-1.Google Scholar
Henning, W, Kutschera, W, Myslek-Laurikainen, B, Pardo, RC, Smither, RK, and Yntema, JL, 1981b, Accelerator mass spectrometry of 59Ni and Fe isotopes at the Argonne superconducting linac, in : Argonne, Illinois, Argonne Natl Lab Rept ANL/PHY-81-81, p 320329.Google Scholar
Klein, J, Middleton, R, and Stephens, WE, 1981, Search for anomalously heavy isotopes, in : Argonne, Illinois, Argonne Natl Lab Rept ANL/PHY-81-1, p 136153.Google Scholar
Kutschera, W, Henning, W, Paul, M, Smither, RK, Stephenson, EJ, Yntema, JL, Alburger, DE, Cumming, JB, and Harbottle, G, 1980, Measurement of the 32Si half-life via accelerator mass spectrometry: Phys Rev Letters, v 45, p 592596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lal, D and Peters, B, 1967, Cosmic-ray produced radioactivity on the earth, in : Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, Springer, v XLVI/2, p 551612.Google Scholar
Lederer, CM and Shirley, VS, eds, 1978, Table of isotopes: New York, John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Middleton, R, Zurmühle, RW, Klein, J, and Kollarits, RV, 1979, Search for an anomalously heavy isotope of oxygen: Phys Rev Letters, v 43, p 429431.Google Scholar
Muller, RA, 1977, Radioisotope dating with a cyclotron: Science, v 196, p 489494.Google Scholar
Muller, RA, Alvarez, LW, Holley, WR, and Stephenson, EJ, 1977, Quarks with unit charge: A search for anomalous hydrogen: Science, v 196, p 521523.Google Scholar
Nagai, H, Nitoh, O, and Honda, M, 1981, Half-life of 202Pb: Radiochim Acta, v 29, p 169172.Google Scholar
Nelson, DE, Korteling, RG, and Stott, WR, 1977, Carbon-14: Direct detection at natural concentrations: Science, v 198, p 507508.Google ScholarPubMed
Nelson, DE, Korteling, RG, Southon, JR, Vogel, JS, Nowikow, I, Ku, TL, Kusakabe, M, and Reyss, JL, 1983, Tandem accelerator measurements of 10Be deposition rates, in : Radiocarbon, v 25.Google Scholar
Nishiizumi, K and Arnold, JR, 1981, Measurement of cosmogenic nuclides in extraterrestrial material, in : Argonne, Illinois, Argonne Natl Lab Rept ANL/PHY-81-1, p 262276.Google Scholar
Pal, DK, Tuniz, C, Moniot, RK, Kruse, TH, and Herzog, GF, in press, 10Be in Australasian tektites: Evidence for a sedimentary precursor: Science, in press.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, Yiou, F, Fruneau, M, Lieuvin, M, and Loiseaux, JM, 1978a, Measurement of 10Be in 1,000- and 5,000-year-old Antarctic ice: Nature, v 275, p 731732.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, Yiou, F, Fruneau, M, and Loiseaux, JM, 1978b, Beryllium-10 mass spectrometry with a cyclotron: Science, v 202, p 215217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raisbeck, GM, Yiou, F, Fruneau, M, Loiseaux, JM, and Lieuvin, M, 1979a, 10Be concentration and residence time in the ocean surface layer: Earth Planetary Sci Letters, v 43, p 237240.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, Yiou, F, Fruneau, M, Loiseaux, JM, Lieuvin, M, and Ravel, JC, 1979b, Deposition rate and seasonal variations in precipitation of cosmogenic 10Be: Nature, v 282, p 279280.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, GM and Yiou, F, 1979, 26Al measurement with a cyclotron: Jour Physique, v 40, p L-241L-243.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, 1980, Progress report on the possible use of 41Ca for radioactive dating: preprint, Lab Rene Bernas, Orsay: Rev Archeometrie, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, 1981, Accelerator mass spectrometry with the Grenoble and Orsay cyclotrons: in Henning, et al, eds, Symposium on accelerator mass spectrometry, Proc: Argonne, Illinois, Argonne Natl Lab Rept ANL/PHY-81-1, p 2333.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, Yiou, F, Fruneaux, M, Loiseaux, JM, Lieuvin, M, Ravel, JC, Reyss, JM, and Guichard, F, 1980, 10Be concentration and residence time in the deep ocean: Earth Planetary Sci Letters, v 51, p 275278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, Yiou, F, Lieuvin, M, Ravel, JC, Fruneau, M, and Loiseaux, JM, 1981, 10Be in the environment: Some recent results and their implications, in : Argonne, Illinois, Argonne Natl Lab Rept ANL/PHY-81-1, p 228243.Google Scholar
Smith, PF, Bennet, JRJ, Homer, GJ, Lewin, JD, Walford, HE, and Smith, WA, 1981, A search for anomalous hydrogen in enriched D2O, using a time-of-flight spectrometer, in : Argonne, Illinois, Argonne Natl Lab Rept ANL/PHY-81-1, p 170192.Google Scholar
Suess, HE and Urey, HC, 1956, Abundances of the elements: Rev Modern Physics, v 28, p 5374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, JH, (ms), 1982, Ultra-sensitive mass spectroscopy using a tandem van de Graaff accelerator to detect 10Be and 26Al; PhD thesis, Yale Univ, New Haven.Google Scholar
Turekian, KK, Cochran, JK, Krishnaswami, S, Lanford, WA, Parker, PD, and Bauer, KA, 1979, The measurement of 10Be in manganese nodules using a tandem van de Graaf accelerator: Geophysics Research Letters, v 6, p 417420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahlen, M, Kothari, B, Elmore., D, Tubbs, L, Newman, D, Ma, XC, and Gove, HE, (ms), 1982, 10Be in lake sediments.Google Scholar
Ziegler, JF, 1980, Handbook of stopping cross-sections for energetic ions in all elements, vol 5: New York, Pergamon Press.Google Scholar