Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:59:33 +0100 (Paris, Madrid)
From: Georges Audi <audi@csnsm.in2p3.fr>
To: Recipients of AMDC bulletin: ;
Subject: News from the Atomic Mass Data Center (AMDC)

    THE FUTURE OF THE AME      by  Georges Audi & Huang Wenxue

    Since 2003 and the publication of the last Atomic Mass
    Evaluation (AME), there has been active investigation
    concerning the future of the AME, the "AME-Future" project.
    See previous bulletins :
    http://amdc.in2p3.fr/bulletins/filel.html

    Up to now all possibilities explored in Europe and the US
    have failed to secure a future in an established structure,
    although strong interest and in-principle support was
    received from almost everywhere. The only concrete committment
    came from the Max-Planck-Institute of Nuclear Physics in
    Heidelberg offering a two-years post-doc position to help to
    set-up the next Mass-Table.

    It was then decided to explore if China would be a possible
    place for the "AME-Future". Intensive discussions held
    recently with Chinese nuclear physicists and their
    institutes, have now lead to a very promising future : the
    Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    (IMP), one of the reputed places for nuclear physics, is where
    the "AME-Future" will be secured for the benefit of all.
    A memorandum that defines and secures the future was signed
    on November 17, 2008.

    More details or information, when available, will be given at:
    http://amdc.in2p3.fr/bulletins/Ame-fut.html


    A REVIEW PAPER ON MASSES              by  Lutz Schweikhard

    A publication of general interest (6-page introduction and
    overview) appeared in  Nucl. Phys. News 18(3) 29-34 (2008):
    " Masses of Short-Lived Nuclides - Precision Measurement "
    " Techniques and Applications "
    by Klaus Blaum, Yuri A. Litvinov and Lutz Schweikhard.

    It covers the state of the art of the field including both
    Penning-trap and storage-ring methods by which in recent
    years the masses of about one third of all known nuclides
    have been either remeasured or measured for the first time,
    at increasing accuracy (uncertainties down to 1 in 100
    million) and increasing sensitivity, and it includes
    highlights like the discoveries of new isomeric states by
    their E=mc2 mass difference with respect to the ground state.

    The article is not on the web. For more information please
    contact one of the authors : klaus.blaum(at)mpi-hd.mpg.de -
    y.litvinov(at)gsi.de - lschweik(at)physik.uni-greifswald.de