Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, an Ultrasensitive Tool to Measure Cross Sections for Stellar Nucleosynthesis

The combination of the activation method and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has grown to be an important resource to measure nuclear reaction cross sections, especially when these are very small. The activation method refers to the production of long-lived radioisotopes by nuclear reactions induced by charged particles, neutrons, or γ-rays. The ultrasensitivity achieved by AMS allows the detection of even a very small number of such long-lived radioactive products. Several reviews of this topic have been published recently and our goal in this work is to continue with the review effort by including some of our own publications, as well as a few more.