Direct Mass Measurements and Global Evaluation of Atomic Masses

The Atomic Mass Evaluation (Ame), started in the 1960s, is the most reliable source for comprehensive information related to atomic masses. It provides the best values for the atomic masses and their associated uncertainties by evaluating experimental data from decay, reactions, and mass spectrometry. In this thesis, the philosophy and the most important features of the Ame will be discussed in detail. The most recent developments of the latest mass table (AME2016), such as molecular binding energy, energy correction of the implantation measurements, and the relativistic formula for the alpha-decay process, will be presented. Another part of this thesis concerns the data analysis from the Penning-trap spectrometer ISOLTRAP at ISOLDE/CERN. The new results are included in the global adjustment and their influences on the existing masses are discussed. The last part of this thesis is related to the systematic error studies of the ISOLTRAP multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer, using an off-line ion source and the on-line proton beam. From the analysis of the selected measurements, I found that the systematic error is much smaller than the statistical uncertainties obtained up to now.