Low-temperature heat capacities,entropies and high-pressure phase relations of MgSiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> ilmenite and perovskite

Low-temperature isobaric heat capacities (C _p ) of MgSiO₃ ilmenite and perovskite were measured in the temperature range of 1.9–302.4 K with a thermal relaxation method using the Physical Properties Measurement System. The measured C _p of perovskite was higher than that of ilmenite in the whole temperature range studied. From the measured C _p , standard entropies at 298.15 K of MgSiO₃ ilmenite and perovskite were determined to be 53.7 ± 0.4 and 57.9 ± 0.3 J/mol K, respectively. The positive entropy change (4.2 ± 0.5 J/mol K) of the ilmenite–perovskite transition in MgSiO₃ is compatible with structural change across the transition in which coordination of Mg atoms is changed from sixfold to eightfold. Calculation of the ilmenite–perovskite transition boundary using the measured entropies and published enthalpy data gives an equilibrium transition boundary at about 20–23 GPa at 1,000–2,000 K with a Clapeyron slope of −2.4 ± 0.4 MPa/K at 1,600 K. The calculated boundary is almost consistent within the errors with those determined by high-pressure high-temperature in situ X-ray diffraction experiments.     

On the detection of artefacts in spectro-astrometry

We demonstrate that artificial bipolar structure can be detected using spectro-astrometry when the point spread function (PSF) of a point source suffers distortion in a relatively wide slit. Spectro-astrometry is a technique which allows us to probe the spatial structure of astronomical sources on milliarcsec (mas) scales making it possible to detect close binaries and to study the geometry and kinematics of outflowing gas on scales much smaller than the seeing or the diffraction limit of the telescope. It is demonstrated that a distorted PSF, caused by tracking errors of the telescope or unstable active optics during an exposure, can induce artificial signals which may be misinterpreted as a real spectro-astrometric signal. Using simulations, we show that these may be minimized by using a narrow slit relative to the seeing. Spectra should be obtained at antiparallel slit position angles (e.g. 0° and 180°) for comparison in order to allow artificial signatures to be identified.