Accelerator mass spectrometry - From DNA to astrophysics

Abstract

A brief review of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is presented. The present work touches on a few technical aspects and recent developments of AMS, and describes two specific applications of AMS, the dating of human DNA with the 14C bomb peak and the search for superheavy elements in nature. Since two extended general reviews on technical developments in AMS [1] and applications of AMS [2] will appear in 2013, frequent reference to these reviews is made. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013.