Subsolar noble gases in an acid-resistant residue of the EH5 chondrite St Mark's

Extract from the introduction: Enstatite chondrites have remarkable properties: they were formed in a reducing environment, they are putatively similar to precursor material of Earth, Venus, or Mercury, have a terrestrial oxygen isotopic composition and an uncommon noble gas signature [1-5]. Trapped noble gases in Echondrites are intermediate between solar and chondritic composition and consist of two components: Subsolar, enriched in Ar and Kr relative to Xe and Q-gas, possibly residing in enstatite, micro-vesicles or graphite within enstatite [6,7] and Q-gases [5,8]

Phase Q - A carrier for subsolar noble gases

We discuss noble gases in the E-chondrite St. Mark's indicating that the subsolar component does not exclusively reside in enstatite. Element and isotope abundances including He are presented. Fractionation probably took place prior to incorporation

Coupled Ferromagnetic and Nematic Ordering of Fermions in an Optical Flux Lattice

Ultracold atoms in Raman-dressed optical lattices allow for effective momentum-dependent interactions among single-species fermions originating from short-range s-wave interactions. These dressed-state interactions combined with very flat bands encountered in the recently introduced optical flux lattices push the Stoner instability towards weaker repulsive interactions, making it accessible with current experiments. As a consequence of the coupling between spin and orbital degrees of freedom, the magnetic phase features Ising nematic order.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures (published version

Coherent photon-photon interactions in very peripheral relativistic heavy ion collisions

Heavy ions at high velocities provide very strong electromagnetic fields for a very short time. The main characteristics of ultraperipheral relativistic heavy ion collisions are reviewed, characteristic parameters are identified. The main interest in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at relativistic ion colliders like the LHC is the interactions of very high energy (equivalent) photons with the countermoving (equivalent) photons and hadrons (protons/ions). The physics of these interactions is quite different from and complementary to the physics of the strong fields achieved with current and future lasers.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, invited talk presented at the ELI Workshop and School on Fundamental Physics with Ultra-high Fields (September 29- October 2, 2008, Frauenwoerth, German

Helium isotopic ratios in carbonaceous chondrites: Significant for the early solar nebula and circumstellar diamonds?

Stepwise etching of acid-resistant residues from carbonaceous chondrites yields a new, extraordinarily low He isotopic ratio for phase Q that might represent early solar nebula composition. A much lower ratio possibly characterizes He-P3 from circumstellar diamonds

Production of Low Mass Electron Pairs Due to the Photon-Photon Mechanism in Central Collisions

We calculate the probability for dilepton production in central relativistic heavy ion collisions due to the gamma-gamma mechanism. This is a potential background to more interesting mechanisms. We find that this mechanism is negligible in the CERES experiments. Generally, the contribution due to this mechanism is small in the central region, while it can be large for small invariant masses and forward or backward rapidities. A simple formula based on the equivalent photon approximation and applications to a possible scenario at RHIC are also given.Comment: 10 pages REVTeX, 5 Figures, for related work see http://quasar.physik.unibas.ch/~hencken

On line etching of bulk EH5 St. Mark's – Radiogenic and subsolar noble gases

Introduction: On line etching is very useful to analyse noble gas components such as 'Q' or the solar wind [1, 2]. A bulk meteorite sample, however, has never been analysed by on line etching in order to characterise its complete noble gas inventory

Solar noble bases in enstatite chondrites and implications for the formation of the terrestrial planets

We report evidence for tiny amounts of - most likely primordial - noble gases with solar-like elemental and isotopic composition admixed to Q-type primordial noble gases in an E chondrite. We will discuss possible implications of this finding for terrestrial planet formation