Settling the Half-Life of Fe-60: Fundamental for a Versatile Astrophysical Chronometer

Author(s)

Anton Wallner, M. Bichler, K. Buczak, R. Dressler, L. K. Fifield, D. Schumann, J. H. Sterba, S. G. Tims, G. Wallner, Walter Kutschera

Abstract

In order to resolve a recent discrepancy in the half-life of Fe60, we performed an independent measurement with a new method that determines the Fe60 content of a material relative to Fe55 (t1/2=2.744yr) with accelerator mass spectrometry. Our result of (2.50±0.12)×106yr clearly favors the recently reported value (2.62±0.04)×106yr, and rules out the older result of (1.49±0.27)×106yr. The present weighted mean half-life value of (2.60±0.05)×106yr substantially improves the reliability as an important chronometer for astrophysical applications in the million-year time range. This includes its use as a sensitive probe for studying recent chemical evolution of our Galaxy, the formation of the early Solar System, nucleosynthesis processes in massive stars, and as an indicator of a recent nearby supernova.

Organisation(s)

Isotope Physics, Department of Inorganic Chemistry

External organisation(s)

Technische Universität Wien, Paul Scherrer Institute, Australian National University

Journal

Physical Review Letters

Volume

114

No. of pages

6

ISSN

0031-9007

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.041101

Publication date

01-2015

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

104003 Inorganic chemistry, 103014 Nuclear physics, 104017 Physical chemistry

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Physics and Astronomy

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/322d91ef-f39a-4f6b-8e0f-093da1bf7514