Abundance and Partitioning of OH in a High-pressure Magmatic System: Megacrysts from the Monastery Kimberlite, South Africa

Concentrations of OH, and major and trace elements were determined in a suite of mantle-derived megacrysts that represent the crystallization products of a kimberlite-like magma at ~5 GPa and ~1400–1100°C. OH concentrations, determined by single-crystal Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, display the following ranges (ppmw H2O): olivine 54–262, orthopyroxene 215–263, garnet 15–74, clinopyroxene 195–620, and zircon 28–34. High OH concentrations in olivine imply mantle conditions of origin, with limited H loss during ascent. OH is consistently correlated with megacryst composition, exhibiting trends with Mg-number that are similar to those of other minor and trace elements and indicating a record of high-pressure magmatic evolution. H substitution is not coupled to minor elements in olivine, but may be in ortho- and clinopyroxene. The OH–Mg-number trends of garnet and clinopyroxene show inflections related to co-precipitation of ilmenite, suggesting minor element (Ti) influence on OH partitioning. During differentiation, relative OH enrichment in clinopyroxene and olivine is consistent with proportional dependence on water activity, whereas that in garnet suggests a higher power-law dependence and/or influence of temperature. Inter-mineral distribution coefficients for OH between cpx, opx, olivine and zircon are thus constant, whereas partitioning between these minerals and garnet shows a factor 4–10 variation, correlated regularly with composition (and temperature). Calculation of solid–melt partition coefficients for H at 5 GPa over a range of magmatic evolution from 1380 to 1250°C yields: ol 0·0053–0·0046, opx 0·0093–0·0059, cpx 0·016–0·013, gt 0·0014–0·0003, bulk (garnet lherzolite–melt) 0·0063–0·0051. These are consistent with experimental studies and similar to values inferred from mid-ocean ridge basalt geochemistry, confirming the moderate incompatibility of H in mantle melting

High-efficiency cell concepts on low-cost silicon sheets

The limitations on sheet growth material in terms of the defect structure and minority carrier lifetime are discussed. The effect of various defects on performance are estimated. Given these limitations designs for a sheet growth cell that will make the best of the material characteristics are proposed. Achievement of optimum synergy between base material quality and device processing variables is proposed. A strong coupling exists between material quality and the variables during crystal growth, and device processing variables. Two objectives are outlined: (1) optimization of the coupling for maximum performance at minimal cost; and (2) decoupling of materials from processing by improvement in base material quality to make it less sensitive to processing variables

Objective Classification of Galaxy Spectra using the Information Bottleneck Method

A new method for classification of galaxy spectra is presented, based on a recently introduced information theoretical principle, the `Information Bottleneck'. For any desired number of classes, galaxies are classified such that the information content about the spectra is maximally preserved. The result is classes of galaxies with similar spectra, where the similarity is determined via a measure of information. We apply our method to approximately 6000 galaxy spectra from the ongoing 2dF redshift survey, and a mock-2dF catalogue produced by a Cold Dark Matter-based semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. We find a good match between the mean spectra of the classes found in the data and in the models. For the mock catalogue, we find that the classes produced by our algorithm form an intuitively sensible sequence in terms of physical properties such as colour, star formation activity, morphology, and internal velocity dispersion. We also show the correlation of the classes with the projections resulting from a Principal Component Analysis.Comment: submitted to MNRAS, 17 pages, Latex, with 14 figures embedde

Periodically driven stochastic un- and refolding transitions of biopolymers

Mechanical single molecule experiments probe the energy profile of biomolecules. We show that in the case of a profile with two minima (like folded/unfolded) periodic driving leads to a stochastic resonance-like phenomenon. We demonstrate that the analysis of such data can be used to extract four basic parameters of such a transition and discuss the statistical requirements of the data acquisition. As advantages of the proposed scheme, a polymeric linker is explicitly included and thermal fluctuations within each well need not to be resolved.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to EP

Bell's Jump Process in Discrete Time

The jump process introduced by J. S. Bell in 1986, for defining a quantum field theory without observers, presupposes that space is discrete whereas time is continuous. In this letter, our interest is to find an analogous process in discrete time. We argue that a genuine analog does not exist, but provide examples of processes in discrete time that could be used as a replacement.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX, no figure

Affine actions on non-archimedean trees

We initiate the study of affine actions of groups on $\Lambda$-trees for a general ordered abelian group $\Lambda$; these are actions by dilations rather than isometries. This gives a common generalisation of isometric action on a $\Lambda$-tree, and affine action on an $\R$-tree as studied by I. Liousse. The duality between based length functions and actions on $\Lambda$-trees is generalised to this setting. We are led to consider a new class of groups: those that admit a free affine action on a $\Lambda$-tree for some $\Lambda$. Examples of such groups are presented, including soluble Baumslag-Solitar groups and the discrete Heisenberg group.Comment: 27 pages. Section 1.4 expanded, typos corrected from previous versio

Study of the general mechanism of stress corrosion of aluminum alloys and development of techniques for its detection Quarterly report, 1 May - 31 Aug. 1968

Mechanism of stress corrosion cracking in aluminum alloys and techniques for detection of surface defect

The rise and fall of early oil field technology: The torsion balance gradiometer

Today elementary physics students take for granted such quantities as "big G," the universal gravitational constant. In fact in the late 1700s the value of this quantity was unknown, and the quest to determine it led to some of the earliest geophysical instrumentation. Just after the Revolutionary War in the United States, Cavendish developed the first system to measure the universal gravitational constant, the familiar "big G." Unfortunately, for geologists (at this time still mostly "gentlemen scientists"), this apparatus produced data which were difficult to interpret geologically, and it was far too large and cumbersome for field use. The geologic limitation was that the system only measured the horizontal derivative of a horizontal component of the gravity field, a quantity which by itself is difficult to interpret. Thus no applications of this elegant yet laboratory-bound instrument emerged

Exact Quantum Solutions of Extraordinary N-body Problems

The wave functions of Boson and Fermion gases are known even when the particles have harmonic interactions. Here we generalise these results by solving exactly the N-body Schrodinger equation for potentials V that can be any function of the sum of the squares of the distances of the particles from one another in 3 dimensions. For the harmonic case that function is linear in r^2. Explicit N-body solutions are given when U(r) = -2M \hbar^{-2} V(r) = \zeta r^{-1} - \zeta_2 r^{-2}. Here M is the sum of the masses and r^2 = 1/2 M^{-2} Sigma Sigma m_I m_J ({\bf x}_I - {\bf x}_J)^2. For general U(r) the solution is given in terms of the one or two body problem with potential U(r) in 3 dimensions. The degeneracies of the levels are derived for distinguishable particles, for Bosons of spin zero and for spin 1/2 Fermions. The latter involve significant combinatorial analysis which may have application to the shell model of atomic nuclei. For large N the Fermionic ground state gives the binding energy of a degenerate white dwarf star treated as a giant atom with an N-body wave function. The N-body forces involved in these extraordinary N-body problems are not the usual sums of two body interactions, but nor are forces between quarks or molecules. Bose-Einstein condensation of particles in 3 dimensions interacting via these strange potentials can be treated by this method.Comment: 24 pages, Latex. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of the Royal Societ

The rise and fall of early oil field technology: The torsion balance gradiometer

Today elementary physics students take for granted such quantities as "big G," the universal gravitational constant. In fact in the late 1700s the value of this quantity was unknown, and the quest to determine it led to some of the earliest geophysical instrumentation. Just after the Revolutionary War in the United States, Cavendish developed the first system to measure the universal gravitational constant, the familiar "big G." Unfortunately, for geologists (at this time still mostly "gentlemen scientists"), this apparatus produced data which were difficult to interpret geologically, and it was far too large and cumbersome for field use. The geologic limitation was that the system only measured the horizontal derivative of a horizontal component of the gravity field, a quantity which by itself is difficult to interpret. Thus no applications of this elegant yet laboratory-bound instrument emerged