Cosmic-ray strangelets in the Earth's atmosphere

If strange quark matter is stable in small lumps, we expect to find such lumps, called ``strangelets'', on Earth due to a steady flux in cosmic rays. Following recent astrophysical models, we predict the strangelet flux at the top of the atmosphere, and trace the strangelets' behavior in atmospheric chemistry and circulation. We show that several strangelet species may have large abundances in the atmosphere; that they should respond favorably to laboratory-scale preconcentration techniques; and that they present promising targets for mass spectroscopy experiments.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, revtex

A new scheme to calculate isotope effects

We present a new scheme to calculate isotope effects. Only selected frequencies at the target level of theory are calculated. The frequencies are selected by an analysis of the Hessian from a lower level of theory. We obtain accurate isotope effects without calculating the full Hessian at the target level of theory. The calculated frequencies are very accurate. The scheme converges to the correct isotope effect

A search for anomalously heavy isotopes of low Z nuclei

We present the results of a search for anomalously heavy isotopes of light elements using an electrostatic charged particle spectrometer in conjunction with the MP tandem accelerator facility at the Nuclear Structure Research Laboratory of the University of Rochester. New limits for the abundance of anomalously heavy isotopes (100-10000 amu) in ordinary terrestrial H, Li, Be, B, and F samples and enriched 2H, 13C, and 18O samples are reported.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26505/1/0000042.pd

Quantum-instanton evaluation of the kinetic isotope effects

A general quantum-mechanical method for computing kinetic isotope effects is presented. The method is based on the quantum instanton approximation for the rate constant and on the path integral Metropolis Monte-Carlo evaluation of the Boltzmann operator matrix elements. It computes the kinetic isotope effect directly, using a thermodynamic integration with respect to the mass of the isotope, thus avoiding the more computationally expensive process of computing the individual rate constants. The method is more accurate than variational transition-state theories or the semiclassical instanton method since it does not assume a single reaction path and does not use a semiclassical approximation of the Boltzmann operator. While the general Monte-Carlo implementation makes the method accessible to systems with a large number of atoms, we present numerical results for the Eckart barrier and for the collinear and full three-dimensional isotope variants of the hydrogen exchange reaction H+H{sub 2} {yields} H{sub 2}+H. In all seven test cases, for temperatures between 250 K and 600 K, the error of the quantum instanton approximation for the kinetic isotope effects is less than {approx}10%

The History, Relevance, and Applications of the Periodic System in Geochemistry

Geochemistry is a discipline in the earth sciences concerned with understanding the chemistry of the Earth and what that chemistry tells us about the processes that control the formation and evolution of Earth materials and the planet itself. The periodic table and the periodic system, as developed by Mendeleev and others in the nineteenth century, are as important in geochemistry as in other areas of chemistry. In fact, systemisation of the myriad of observations that geochemists make is perhaps even more important in this branch of chemistry, given the huge variability in the nature of Earth materials – from the Fe-rich core, through the silicate-dominated mantle and crust, to the volatile-rich ocean and atmosphere. This systemisation started in the eighteenth century, when geochemistry did not yet exist as a separate pursuit in itself. Mineralogy, one of the disciplines that eventually became geochemistry, was central to the discovery of the elements, and nineteenth-century mineralogists played a key role in this endeavour. Early “geochemists” continued this systemisation effort into the twentieth century, particularly highlighted in the career of V.M. Goldschmidt. The focus of the modern discipline of geochemistry has moved well beyond classification, in order to invert the information held in the properties of elements across the periodic table and their distribution across Earth and planetary materials, to learn about the physicochemical processes that shaped the Earth and other planets, on all scales. We illustrate this approach with key examples, those rooted in the patterns inherent in the periodic law as well as those that exploit concepts that only became familiar after Mendeleev, such as stable and radiogenic isotopes