Role of accelerator mass spectrometry in nuclear physics

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) was developed in nuclear physics laboratories and up to now all experiments were performed at these places. However, AMS is being applied to a variety of fields which have very little to do with nuclear physics. The implications are for its original field can be divided in two domains. First, there are clearly instrumental implications. The overall demand of AMS for high efficiency ion sources, great stability, flexibility, and control of the entire accelerator system is certainly beneficial for the performance of any nuclear physics program. Second, AMS can be conveniently used to determine nuclear quantities of interest when the measurements involves very low radioisotope concentrations. Examples are the half-life measurement of 32Si and the cross section measurement of the 26Mg(p,n)26Al reaction. As the overall detection efficiency will improve there are some interesting problems in nuclear physics and elementary particle physics which are tempting to try. Although most of these experiments are beyond the present capability of AMS, some general aspects are discussed in section 5