Analysis of ancient sediments and extra-terrestrial materials Semiannual report, 1 Jun. - 30 Nov. 1966

Isolation and identification of organic components of meteorites, and ancient sediment

Engineering knowledge requirements for sand and dust on Mars

The successful landing of human beings on Mars and the establishment of a permanent outpost there will require an understanding of the Martian environment by the engineers. A key feature of the Martian environment is the nearly ubiquitous presence of sand and dust. The process which the engineering community will undertake to determine the sensitivities of their designs to the current level of knowledge about Mars sand and dust is emphasized. The interaction of the engineering community with the space exploration initiative (SEI) mission planners and management is described

Nature and changes in organic matter in organic sediments

A series of isoprenoid compounds were isolated from a heat treated marine sediment (from Tanner Basin) which were not present in the original sediment. Among the compounds identified were: phytol, dihydrophytol, C-18-isoprenoid ketone, phytanic and pristanic acids, C-19- and C-10-monoolefines, and the alkanes pristane and phytane. The significance and possible routes leading to these compounds is discussed

The Isotopic Abundance and Content of Sulfur in Meteorites

Isotopic abundance and content of sulfur in stony and iron meteorite

Eigenstate Structure in Graphs and Disordered Lattices

We study wave function structure for quantum graphs in the chaotic and disordered regime, using measures such as the wave function intensity distribution and the inverse participation ratio. The result is much less ergodicity than expected from random matrix theory, even though the spectral statistics are in agreement with random matrix predictions. Instead, analytical calculations based on short-time semiclassical behavior correctly describe the eigenstate structure.Comment: 4 pages, including 2 figure

Propagation and interaction of ultrashort electromagnetic pulses in nonlinear media with a quadratic-cubic nonlinearity

Propagation of extremely short unipolar pulses of electromagnetic field ("videopulses") is considered in the framework of a model in which the material medium is represented by anharmonic oscillators (approximating bound electrons) with quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. Two families of exact analytical solutions (with positive or negative polarity) are found for the moving solitary pulses. Direct simulations demonstrate that the pulses are very robust against perturbations. Two unipolar pulses collide nearly elastically, while collisions between pulses with opposite polarities and a small relative velocity are inelastic, leading to emission of radiation and generation of a small-amplitude additional pulse.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure