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

Autor(en)

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

Abstrakt

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(en)

Isotopenphysik, Institut für Anorganische Chemie

Externe Organisation(en)

Technische Universität Wien, Paul Scherrer Institute, Australian National University

Journal

Physical Review Letters

Band

114

Anzahl der Seiten

6

ISSN

0031-9007

DOI

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

Publikationsdatum

01-2015

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

104003 Anorganische Chemie, 103014 Kernphysik, 104017 Physikalische Chemie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Physik und Astronomie

Link zum Portal

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