Unexplained Sets of Seismographic Station Reports and A Set Consistent with a Quark Nugget Passage

In 1984 Edward Witten proposed that an extremely dense form of matter composed of up, down, and strange quarks may be stable at zero pressure (Witten, 1984). Massive nuggets of such dense matter, if they exist, may pass through the Earth and be detectable by the seismic signals they generate (de Rujula and Glashow, 1984). With this motivation we investigated over 1 million seismic data reports to the U.S. Geological Survey for the years 1990-1993 not associated with epicentral sources. We report two results: (1) with an average of about 0.16 unassociated reports per minute after data cuts, we found a significant excess over statistical expectation for sets with ten or more reports in ten minutes; and (2) in spite of a very small a priori probability from random reports, we found one set of reports with arrival times and other features appropriate to signals from an epilinear source. This event has the properties predicted for the passage of a nugget of strange quark matter (SQM) through the earth, although there is no direct confirmation from other phenomenologies.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, one previously described event eliminated, extensive examination of the second event as a possible association of random reports, additional analysis of the data set, search algorithms, and waveform

Initial results from geophysical surveys and shallow coring of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS)

The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) is the sole interior Greenlandic ice stream. Fast flow initiates near the summit dome, and the ice stream terminates approximately 1000 km downstream in three large outlet glaciers that calve into the Greenland Sea. To better understand this important system, in the summer of 2012 we drilled a 67 m firn core and conducted ground-based radio-echo sounding (RES) and active-source seismic surveys at a site approximately 150 km downstream from the onset of streaming flow (NEGIS firn core, 75°37.61' N, 35°56.49' W). The site is representative of the upper part of the ice stream, while also being in a crevasse-free area for safe surface operations. Annual cycles were observed for insoluble dust, sodium and ammonium concentrations and for electrolytic conductivity, allowing a seasonally resolved chronology covering the past 400 yr. Annual layer thicknesses averaged 0.11 m ice equivalent (i.e.) for the period 1607–2011, although accumulation varied between 0.08 and 0.14 m i.e., likely due to flow-related changes in surface topography. Tracing of RES layers from the NGRIP (North Greenland Ice Core Project) ice core site shows that the ice at NEGIS preserves a climatic record of at least the past 51 kyr. We demonstrate that deep ice core drilling in this location can provide a reliable Holocene and late-glacial climate record, as well as helping to constrain the past dynamics and ice–lithosphere interactions of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Gridless optical networking field trial: flexible spectrum switching, defragmentation and transport of 10G/40G/100G/555G over 620-km field fiber

We present results from the first gridless networking field trial with flexible spectrum switching nodes and 620 km of installed fibre links. Signals at 10G, 12.25G, 42.7G, DP-QPSK 40G, DP-QPSK 100G and 555G are generated, successfully transported and switched using flexible, custom spectrum allocation per channel. Spectrum defragmentation is demonstrated using integrated SOA-MZI wavelength converters. Results show error-free end-to-end performance (BER<1e-9) for the OOK channels and good pre-FEC BER performance with sufficient margin to FEC limit for the 40G and 100G coherent channels as well as for the 555G super-channel