A research group led by Cyclotron and Radioisotope Center, Tohoku University, Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Konan University, University of Notre Dame and some other institutions has discovered a new excited state of Carbon-12 nucleus which plays a crucial role in the nucleosynthesis in the Universe, through the high-precision measurement of nuclear scattering by using a ring-cyclotron accelerator. This discovery is expected to advance the understanding of the elemental abundance in the Universe and provides insights in resolving the mystery of the origin of life.

 This result has been published in "Physical Review C" on November 14, 2011 and has been introduced in “Physics Viewpoint.”

Article in Physics Viewpoint

http://physics.aps.org/articles/v4/94

More information (Japanese)

[Contact]

Assistant Professor Masatoshi Itoh

Cyclotron and Radioisotope Center, Tohoku University

TEL: +81-22-795-7796

E-mail: itoh*cyric.tohoku.ac.jp (Replace * with @)

Associate Professor Mamoru Fujiwara

Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University

TEL: +81-6-6879-8914

E-mail: fujiwara*rcnp.osaka-u.ac.jp (Replace * with @)

Associate Professor Takahiro Kawabata

Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

TEL: +81-75-753-3832

E-mail:kawabata*scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Replace * with @)