Comment on “Existence of long-lived isomeric states in naturally-occurring neutron-deficient Th isotopes”

Abstract

In their article ''Existence of Long-Lived Isomeric States in Naturally-Occuring Neutron-Deficient Th Isotopes''[Phys. Rev. C 76, 021303 (2007)], Marinov et al. fail to demonstrate that basic mass spectrometric protocols, such as abundance sensitivity, linearity, and freedom from possible interferences, have been met. In particular, the claim that four isomeric states of Th have been discovered, using an inductively coupled plasma-sector field mass spectrometer (ICP-SFMS), with abundances from (1-10)x10{sup -11} relative to {sup 232}Th, cannot be accepted, given the known abundance sensitivities of other sector field mass spectrometers. Accelerator mass spectrometry is the only mass spectrometric methodology capable of measuring relative abundances of the magnitude claimed by Marinov et al.