Carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of the Middle Miocene Badenian gypsum-associated limestones of West Ukraine

The middle Miocene Badenian basin of the Carpathian Foredeep is characterized by complex sedimentary and diagenetic carbonate-evaporite transitions. Six locations have been selected to evaluate the controls on the carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of the Badenian gypsum-associated limestones of the Tyras Formation in West Ukraine. At three locations marine limestones overlie the gypsum, at one location (Anadoly) the gypsum-associated limestones are polygenic, and at two localities (Pyshchatyntsi and Lozyna) gypsum deposits are lacking. The studied limestones have originated as primary, mostly peloidal carbonates as well as secondary carbonates formed by hypogene sulphate calcitisation. They show a wide range of d13C (from from -0.9‰ to -39.8‰) and d18O values (from 0.9‰ to -12.2‰). The Badenian limestones formed in marine environments (either as deposits accumulated at the bottom of the sea or forming the infillings of solution cavities within gypsum) have less negative d18O values compared to predominantly diagenetic formations. Wide ranges and usually very negative d13C values and low d18O values of those limestones indicate that they suffered important meteoric diagenesis as supported by common sparitic fabrics. In addition, a large range of d13C values even in the group of samples characterized by less-negative d18O values shows that bacterial sulphate reduction and methane oxidation were active processes in the pore fluids of the Tyras Formation. Very low carbon isotopic compositions (d13C values from -22 to -40‰) of some sparitic limestones in the studied sections indicate the occurrence of oxidized methane within the diagenetic environment. Accordingly, the isotopic signatures of the studied limestones are a combination of both primary and secondary processes, the latter having a primordial importance. The common occurrence of similar negative d13C and d18O values in evaporite-related carbonates in other Miocene evaporite basins suggest that extensive dissolution- reprecipitation in diagenetic or vadose-phreatic environments were common in evaporite-related carbonates

Variaciones espaciales y temporales del registro del límite K/T en Haiti: implicaciones acerca del evento o eventos

El registro en la capa del límite K/T (KTB), en diferentes localidades de la Península Meridional de Haití, muestra claras evidencias de disrupciones físicas causadas por el impacto postulado de un bólico al final del Maastrichtiense. Tanto el registro bioestratigráfico como el litológico de la capa KTB, en diferentes localidades, muestra también diversos grados de mezcla, con componentes faunísticos de edades congruentes con los bioeventos característicos de la transición del límite, equivalentes a la parte terminal de la Zona de Abathomphalus mayaroensis y partes de las Zonas de Guembelitria cretacea y de Parvularugoglobigerina eugubina. La nanoflora calcárea también muestra taxones de la transición, concurrentes con los datos de foraminíferos, e indicativos de las Subzonas de Micula murus y Micula prinsii, así como de la Subzona de Cruciplacolithus primus (CP1a), del Paleoceno basal. La capa del límite tiene variaciones en su potencia, con un máximo de 75cm en el estratotipo de la Formación Beloc, y a techo de la capa principal tectítica hay un máximo de iridio. Los análisis geoquímicos y la datación radiométrica han demostrado también que las esférulas son tectitas (Premo e Izett, 1991) que pueden estar relacionadas cronológicamente con el evento de impacto registrado en Chicxulub, Yucatán, México, hace 65 Ma. Aún más, las delicadas estructuras sedimentarias primarias en la capa del límite son constantes en todos los afloramientos, aunque hay diferencias espaciales incluso a corta distancia. Además, en las áreas adyacentes al estratotipo (Platon Piton y Madame Toussaint) se encuentra una capa volcanogénica, bajo el nivel tectítico principal relacionado con el evento de Chicxulub, que muestra una laminación cruzada, tanto conspicua como críptica, indicativa de procesos de flujo complejos, multifásicos y subacuáticos que afectaron a la sedimentación de forma parecida a la del lecho KTB. Se conocen tales estructuras como características de la acción de ondas oscilantes sobre la cohesión de los sedimentos. El movimiento de las aguas asociado con un seiche es el único análogo actual conocido de un flujo subacuático que proporcione un mecanismo plausible para explicar el que varios niveles de la columna de agua, en una gran cuenca, pueden oscilar para desarrollar las estructuras observadas. Dada la magnitud del impacto del bólido, debieron desarrollarse ‘megaseiches’ en los océanos a escala mundial y, subsecuéntemente, se producirían otros ‘megaseiches’ más localizados durante los reajustes principales de la corteza. Esos fenómenos pueden así explicar la heterogeneidad de pautas y discrepancias faunísticas observadas en varias localidades del KTB, de distinta profundidad de depósito, en el mundo. Las estructuras representan un registro de los movimientos del agua y de la resuspensión de los sedimentos en momentos diferentes. Tal como se ha observado en seiches modernos a pequeña escala, la duración y atenuación de los movimientos del agua y la magnitud de la tracción y resuspensión estuvieron controlados por diversos modos oscilatorios que dieron lugar a complejas estructuras sedimentarias y al retrabajamiento de los microfósiles

The STAR Silicon Strip Detector (SSD)

The STAR Silicon Strip Detector (SSD) completes the three layers of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) to make an inner tracking system located inside the Time Projection Chamber (TPC). This additional fourth layer provides two dimensional hit position and energy loss measurements for charged particles, improving the extrapolation of TPC tracks through SVT hits. To match the high multiplicity of central Au+Au collisions at RHIC the double sided silicon strip technology was chosen which makes the SSD a half million channels detector. Dedicated electronics have been designed for both readout and control. Also a novel technique of bonding, the Tape Automated Bonding (TAB), was used to fullfill the large number of bounds to be done. All aspects of the SSD are shortly described here and test performances of produced detection modules as well as simulated results on hit reconstruction are given.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Phase-space dependence of particle-ratio fluctuations in Pb+Pb collisions from 20A to 158A GeV beam energy

A novel approach, the identity method, was used for particle identification and the study of fluctuations of particle yield ratios in Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). This procedure allows to unfold the moments of the unknown multiplicity distributions of protons (p), kaons (K), pions ($\pi$) and electrons (e). Using these moments the excitation function of the fluctuation measure $\nu_{\text{\text{dyn}}}$[A,B] was measured, with A and B denoting different particle types. The obtained energy dependence of $\nu_{\text{dyn}}$ agrees with previously published NA49 results on the related measure $\sigma_{\text{dyn}}$. Moreover, $\nu_{\text{dyn}}$ was found to depend on the phase space coverage for [K,p] and [K,$\pi$] pairs. This feature most likely explains the reported differences between measurements of NA49 and those of STAR in central Au+Au collisions

System-size and centrality dependence of charged kaon and pion production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and158A GeV beam energy

Measurements of charged pion and kaon production are presented in centrality selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy as well as in semi-central C+C and Si+Si interactions at 40A GeV. Transverse mass spectra, rapidity spectra and total yields are determined as a function of centrality. The system-size and centrality dependence of relative strangeness production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy are derived from the data presented here and published data for C+C and Si+Si collisions at 158A GeV beam energy. At both energies a steep increase with centrality is observed for small systems followed by a weak rise or even saturation for higher centralities. This behavior is compared to calculations using transport models (UrQMD and HSD), a percolation model and the core-corona approach.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, typo table II correcte

NA61/SHINE facility at the CERN SPS: beams and detector system

NA61/SHINE (SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) is a multi-purpose experimental facility to study hadron production in hadron-proton, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. It recorded the first physics data with hadron beams in 2009 and with ion beams (secondary 7Be beams) in 2011. NA61/SHINE has greatly profited from the long development of the CERN proton and ion sources and the accelerator chain as well as the H2 beamline of the CERN North Area. The latter has recently been modified to also serve as a fragment separator as needed to produce the Be beams for NA61/SHINE. Numerous components of the NA61/SHINE set-up were inherited from its predecessors, in particular, the last one, the NA49 experiment. Important new detectors and upgrades of the legacy equipment were introduced by the NA61/SHINE Collaboration. This paper describes the state of the NA61/SHINE facility - the beams and the detector system - before the CERN Long Shutdown I, which started in March 2013

Proton -- Lambda Correlations in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 17.3 GeV

The momentum correlation between protons and lambda particles emitted from central Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 17.3 GeV was studied by the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS. A clear enhancement is observed for small relative momenta (q_{inv} < 0.2 GeV). By fitting a theoretical model, which uses the strong interaction between the proton and the lambda in a given pair, to the measured data a value for the effective source size is deduced. Assuming a static Gaussian source distribution we derive an effective radius parameter of R_G = 3.02 \pm 0.20$(stat.)^{+0.44}_{-0.16}(syst.) fm.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Search for the QCD critical point in nuclear collisions at the CERN SPS

Pion production in nuclear collisions at the SPS is investigated with the aim to search, in a restricted domain of the phase diagram, for power-laws in the behavior of correlations which are compatible with critical QCD. We have analyzed interactions of nuclei of different size (p+p, C+C, Si+Si, Pb+Pb) at 158$A$ GeV adopting, as appropriate observables, scaled factorial moments in a search for intermittent fluctuations in transverse dimensions. The analysis is performed for $\pi^+\pi^-$ pairs with invariant mass very close to the two-pion threshold. In this sector one may capture critical fluctuations of the sigma component in a hadronic medium, even if the $\sigma$-meson has no well defined vacuum state. It turns out that for the Pb+Pb system the proposed analysis technique cannot be applied without entering the invariant mass region with strong Coulomb correlations. As a result the treatment becomes inconclusive in this case. Our results for the other systems indicate the presence of power-law fluctuations in the freeze-out state of Si+Si approaching in size the prediction of critical QCD.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure

Pion emission from the T2K replica target: method, results and application

The T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment in Japan needs precise predictions of the initial neutrino flux. The highest precision can be reached based on detailed measurements of hadron emission from the same target as used by T2K exposed to a proton beam of the same kinetic energy of 30 GeV. The corresponding data were recorded in 2007-2010 by the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS using a replica of the T2K graphite target. In this paper details of the experiment, data taking, data analysis method and results from the 2007 pilot run are presented. Furthermore, the application of the NA61/SHINE measurements to the predictions of the T2K initial neutrino flux is described and discussed.Comment: updated version as published by NIM