Cation distribution in pentlandites (Fe,Ni)9S8: Dependence on pressure and temperature and kinetics of the cation exchange reaction

This paper describes the distribution of Fe and Ni between the octahedral and tetrahedral sites in pentlandite (Fe,Ni)₉S₈. The dependence of the distribution on pressure and temperature and the activation energy of the cation exchange reaction were determined through annealing experiments. Synthetic crystals were annealed at 433–723 K and pressures up to 4 GPa, and natural crystals were annealed at 423, 448 and 473 K in evacuated silica capillary tubes for various durations. The cation distributions in the synthetic crystals were determined with an X-ray powder method employing the anomalous dispersion effect of CuK. and FeK radiations, while those of natural crystals were calculated from the cell dimensions. The values of U, S and V for the Fe/Ni exchange reaction are –6818 J mol^–1, 20.52 J K^–1 mol^–1, and 6.99 × 10^–6 m³ mol^–1, respectively. The dependence of the Fe/Ni distribution on pressure (Pa) and temperature (Kelvin) was determined as lnK = 2.47+8.20 × 10² T ^–1+8.41 x 10^–7 T ^–1 P, where K = (Fe/Ni)_octahedral /(Fe/Ni)_tetrahedral. The activation energy of the cation exchange reaction was 185 kJ mol^–1.     

Origin of iridescence in garnet: An optical interference study

The optical interference phenomenon of an iridescent grandite garnet was examined by using white light and laser light on the analogy of the X-ray diffraction method. A kinematical interpretation was also made for the observed angle and intensity of interference light. The regularly stratified layers which cause iridescence are deduced to be periodic twins oriented parallel to the growth layers in each sector with a periodicity of about 1,000 Å.     

1974 activity of chokai volcano,Japan

Shallow intrusion of magma caused phreatic explosions and mud flows at the snow-covered summit of Chokai volcano, northeast Honshu, Japan, after 153 years of dormancy. Total heat emission by the eruption is estimated at more than 3.0 × 10²¹ erg. Equivalent amount of magma is about 2.2 × 10⁸ ton. Focal mechanisms of the associated volcanic earthquakes, which had been variable during the period of eruption. became stable after the cessation of the surface activity with pressure axis in a NW direction which is also the strike of the epicenter distribution. This temporal change of focal mechanisms may be interpreted as the result of propagation of increased pore pressure in the direction of the maximum pressure in the post eruptive period. The magmatic pressure which certainly predominated during the eruption period and caused carthquakes with variable mechanisms, decreased through surface activity.     

Theory of asteroseismology

The increasing number of pulsating modes in a star leads to the increase of the amount of information derived from the pulsation. Probing the invisible interior of stars is a dream come true. In this review, I summarize the fundamental properties of stellar pulsations and the excitation mechanisms, emphasizing several cases of recent progress.     

Asteroseismology and Oblique Pulsator Model of beta Cephei

The evolution of halos consisting of weakly self-interacting dark matter particles is investigated using a new numerical Monte Carlo N-body method. The halos initially contain kinematically cold, dense r-1 power-law cores. For interaction cross sections sigma*=sigmawsi&solm0;mp>/=10-100 cm2 g-1, weak self-interaction leads to the formation of isothermal, constant-density cores within a Hubble time as a result of heat transfer into the cold inner regions. This core structure is in good agreement with the observations of dark matter rotation curves in dwarf galaxies. The isothermal core radii and core densities are a function of the halo scale radii and scale masses which depend on the cosmological model. Adopting the currently popular LambdaCDM model, the predicted core radii and core densities are in good agreement with the observations. For large interaction cross sections, massive dark halos with scale radii rs>/=1.4x104 cm2 g-1 (sigma*)-1 kpc could experience core collapse during their lifetime, leading to cores with singular isothermal density profiles.     

Attempts to infer the density distribution in the outer part of the Sun from p-mode oscillations spectrum

We devise two asymptotic inversion methods of inferring the density distribution in the outer part of the Sun from the p-mode frequency spectrum of the Sun. One of them is based on an integral equation of nonlinear inversion, while the other reduces the problem to a linear form which is derived from comparison of the observed eigenfrequencies of the true Sun and the theoretical eigenfrequencies of a solar model.     

Orientation of X-Ray Bright Points in the Quiet Sun

Thanks to the high-resolution images from the X-ray telescope (XRT) aboard the Hinode satellite, X-ray bright points (XBPs) in the quiet region of the Sun are resolved and can be seen to have complex loop-like structures. We measure the orientation of such loop structures for 488 XBPs picked up in 26 snapshot X-ray images near the disk center. The distribution of the orientation is slightly but clearly biased to the east – west direction: the random distribution is rejected with a significance level of 1% by the χ ²-test. The distribution is similar to the orientation distribution for the bipolar magnetic fields. The XBP orientation is, however, much more random than that of the bipolar magnetic fields with similar size. 24% of the XBPs are due to emerging bipoles, while the remaining 76% are due to chance encounters of opposite polarities.     

Oscillations and pulsations in the sun and stars (invited review)

The discovery of the solar global oscillations, and their identification to many radial and nonradial eigenmodes of the Sun, have opened a new important field of research called solar seismology, in which we may probe the internal structure of the Sun by using its oscillations. In recent years, pulsations and oscillation-related phenomena have also been discovered in many stars which were hitherto regarded as non-pulsating stars. They include white dwards (ZZ Ceti-stars), Ap-stars, early-type stars with slow and rapid rotation (53 Per and Oph-stars, respectively). Developments in high spectral and high time-resolution observations will be expected to reveal variability in many other stars as well, in near future.In this review, the general properties of stellar eigenmode oscillations are first discussed. Recent observational and theoretical developments in the solar seismology and on pulsations and oscillations of newly discovered variable stars will then be reviewed.Paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.     

Compact Two-Dimensional Array of Stressed GE:GA Detectors

We have developed a 4 × 8 array of stressed Ge:Ga detectors. This array detector has a high density format ofentrance pupils so that we can minimize the size of the cameraoptics. The cutoff wavelength of the detector is about 170 m, and the detector's NEP is better than 10¹⁶ WHz^-1/2. We are going apply this array detector toballoon-borne astronomical observations. Furthermore, we aredeveloping this detector into a 5 × 15 array detector that will be placed onboard the IRIS satellite to be launched in 2003.     

Dynamics of a cloud of fast electrons travelling through the plasma

Numerical analysis has been carried out on the one-dimensional quasi-linear relaxation of a group of fast electrons travelling through the plasma. It is demonstrated that the electron velocity distribution of fast electrons tends to be a plateau form exciting the electron plasma waves and that the plasma waves are almost completely reabsorbed later by electrons arriving later. Both the velocity range and time interval in which quasi-plateau distribution is formed increase with distance from the origin of the fast electrons. There is no net energy loss of the electron cloud during the travel through the plasma if we neglect both the collisional losses and the scattering of plasma waves. Although the present computation is preliminary and limited to rather low beam density, we can see that the characteristics of both the electron beam and the plasma waves tend, with distance, to those of the analytical solution given by Ryutov and Sagdeev; though a modification to set a low velocity cutoff on the plasma waves due to the thermal electrons is necessary.