The mineral resources of the English Channel and Thames Estuary

This report accompanies the Marine mineral resource map the marine sand and gravel resources of the English Channel and Thames Estuary (Bide et al, 2012). It has been published as part of the research project Mineral Resource Assessment of the UK Continental Shelf commissioned by The Crown Estate. The map is one of a series that covers the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). Knowledge of mineral resources is essential for effective and sustainable planning decisions. The marine mineral resource maps provide a comprehensive, relevant and accessible information base. This information will allow all stakeholders (planners, industry and members of the public) to visualise the distribution of offshore minerals to a common standard and at a common scale, an important requirement of an integrated marine planning system. The maps will also facilitate the conservation (safeguarding) of non-renewable mineral resources for future generations in accordance with the principles of sustainable development

Wave Mechanics and General Relativity: A Rapprochement

Using exact solutions, we show that it is in principle possible to regard waves and particles as representations of the same underlying geometry, thereby resolving the problem of wave-particle duality

Modern cosmologies from empty Kaluza-Klein solutions in 5D

We show that the empty five-dimensional solutions of Davidson-Sonnenschtein-Vozmediano, {\em Phys. Rev.} {\bf D32} (1985)1330, in the "old" Kaluza-Klein gravity, under appropriate interpretation can generate an ample variety of cosmological models in 4D, which include the higher-dimensional modifications to general relativity predicted by "modern" versions of noncompactified 5D gravity as, e.g., induced-matter and braneworld theories. This is the first time that these solutions are investigated in a systematic way as embeddings for cosmological models in 4D. They provide a different formulation, which is complementary to the approaches used in current versions of 5D relativity.Comment: Accepted for publication in JHE

The marine mineral resources of the UK Continental Shelf : final report

In 2011, The Crown Estate commissioned the British Geological Survey (BGS) to begin a two year research project to undertake a Mineral Resource Assessment of the UK Continental Shelf with the results being depicted as a series of maps, accompanying reports and associated GIS data. This report details the process behind the compilation of these maps. It outlines the data sources used in the project, the methodology used to compile the data, the confidence in the data and any caveats associated with the data and its use. This report focuses on the national model for sand and gravel, where relevant information on the data for other minerals is included for completeness. Knowledge of mineral resources is essential for effective and sustainable planning decisions. The marine mineral resource maps provide a comprehensive, relevant and accessible information base. This information will allow all stakeholders (planners, industry and members of the public) to visualise the distribution of offshore minerals to a common standard and at a common scale, an important requirement of an integrated marine planning system. The maps will also facilitate the conservation (safeguarding) of non-renewable mineral resources for future generations in accordance with the principles of sustainable development

The mineral resources of the East Inshore and East Offshore marine plan areas, southern North Sea

Minerals are naturally occurring raw materials essential for the development of a modern economy. However, mineral resources are finite and can only be worked where they occur. As their extraction is subject to many constraints, it is important that society uses minerals in the most efficient and sustainable manner. Identifying the distribution of known mineral resources on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and presenting them in a consistent fashion at a national scale allows minerals to be considered in the marine spatial planning process and permits more effective and sustainable management strategies to be developed. The British Geological Survey (BGS) has undertaken a commission from The Crown Estate to prepare a series of mineral resource maps which cover the UKCS. Mineral resource information was compiled following a desk study of data held by the BGS and external sources. This report summarises the mineral resources depicted on the first of these maps - the East Inshore and East Offshore Marine Plan Areas in the southern North Sea. These are the first areas (Figure 1) for which the Marine Management Organisation is preparing marine plans (MMO, 2010). The map has been produced by the collation and interpretation of a wide range of information, much of which is spatially variable and not always available in a consistent and convenient form. The map depicts mineral resources of current or potential future economic interest in the area. It comprises a 1:500 000 scale map (which accompanies this report) depicting marine aggregate (sand and gravel) resources on the sea bed, and two 1:1 500 000 scale maps (as annexes in this report) depicting coal and evaporite resources at depth beneath the sea bed. These map scales are convenient for the overall display of the data. However, all the data are held digitally at larger scales using a Geographical Information System (GIS), which allows for revision, updating and customisation of the information, together with integration with other datasets

Inducing the cosmological constant from five-dimensional Weyl space

We investigate the possibility of inducing the cosmological constant from extra dimensions by embedding our four-dimensional Riemannian space-time into a five-dimensional Weyl integrable space. Following approach of the induced matter theory we show that when we go down from five to four dimensions, the Weyl field may contribute both to the induced energy-tensor as well as to the cosmological constant, or more generally, it may generate a time-dependent cosmological parameter. As an application, we construct a simple cosmological model which has some interesting properties.Comment: 7 page

Domain Wall Spacetimes: Instability of Cosmological Event and Cauchy Horizons

The stability of cosmological event and Cauchy horizons of spacetimes associated with plane symmetric domain walls are studied. It is found that both horizons are not stable against perturbations of null fluids and massless scalar fields; they are turned into curvature singularities. These singularities are light-like and strong in the sense that both the tidal forces and distortions acting on test particles become unbounded when theses singularities are approached.Comment: Latex, 3 figures not included in the text but available upon reques

Scale invariant scalar metric fluctuations during inflation: non-perturbative formalism from a 5D vacuum

We extend to 5D an approach of a 4D non-perturbative formalism to study scalar metric fluctuations of a 5D Riemann-flat de Sitter background metric. In contrast with the results obtained in 4D, the spectrum of cosmological scalar metric fluctuations during inflation can be scale invariant and the background inflaton field can take sub-Planckian values.Comment: final version to be published in Eur. Phys. J.

An Embedding for General Relativity and its Implications for New Physics

We show that any solution of the 4D Einstein equations of general relativity in vacuum with a cosmological constant may be embedded in a solution of the 5D Ricci-flat equations with an effective 4D cosmological "constant" that is a specific function of the extra coordinate. For unified theories of the forces in higher dimensions, this has major physical implications