微波等离子体炬质谱技术快速鉴别天然石材与人造石材

天然石材主要有大理石、花岗岩等;人造石材多以不饱和聚酯树脂为基料,添加适量的无机物粉料和添加剂固化制成。由于石材种类繁多,并且各种石材的岩体所含矿物成分也有差异,当前很少应用化学成分分析方法准确、快速鉴别天然和人造石材,仅有的红外光谱法由于对待测物纯度的要求较高而具局限性。本文基于微波等离子体炬源(MPT)同时具有热解吸与强电离能力,能在短时间内离子化待测物的特点,采用微波等离子体炬质谱(MPT-MS)技术,无需样品复杂预处理直接对天然与人造石材进行分析,获得正离子检测模式下在m/z 50~1000之间的石材的指纹谱图,并运用化学计量学的主成分分析(PCA)方法处理所获取的数据,实现了不同建筑石材的区分。结果表明,MPT-MS能够获得石材丰富的指纹谱图,结合PCA方法能够快速鉴别天然石材与人造石材,天然石材中解吸出的物质主要为CO₂和H₂O的团簇分子;而人造石材中解吸出的主要成分为有机物(人为添加的黏合剂等)。本研究采用的MPT-MS技术无需采用喷雾、激光、基质和加热等方法辅助,并且无需对石材进行任何复杂的处理即可进行质谱分析,从而获取石材表面及内部物质的质谱信息,为快速直接鉴定石材样品提供了一种新的质谱分析方法。     

Chandra observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 during the Deep Impact campaign

We present results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory's extensive campaign studying Comet 9P/Tempel 1 (T1) in support of NASA's Deep Impact (DI) mission. T1 was observed for ∼295 ks between 30th June and 24th July 2005, and continuously for ∼64 ks on July 4th during the impact event. X-ray emission qualitatively similar to that observed for the collisionally thin Comet 2P/Encke system [Lisse, C.M., Christian, D.J., Dennerl, K., Wolk, S.J., Bodewits, D., Hoekstra, R., Combi, M.R., Mäkinen, T., Dryer, M., Fry, C.D., Weaver, H., 2005b. Astrophys. J. 635 (2005) 1329-1347] was found, with emission morphology centered on the nucleus and emission lines due to C, N, O, and Ne solar wind minor ions. The comet was relatively faint on July 4th, and the total increase in X-ray flux due to the Deep Impact event was small, ∼20% of the immediate pre-impact value, consistent with estimates that the total coma neutral gas release due to the impact was 5×¹⁰⁶ kg (∼10 h of normal emission). No obvious prompt X-ray flash due to the impact was seen. Extension of the emission in the direction of outflow of the ejecta was observed, suggesting the presence of continued outgassing of this material. Variable spectral features due to changing solar wind flux densities and charge states were clearly seen. Two peaks, much stronger than the man-made increase due to Deep Impact, were found in the observed X-rays on June 30th and July 8th, 2005, and are coincident with increases in the solar wind flux arriving at the comet. Modeling of the Chandra data using observed gas production rates and ACE solar wind ion fluxes with a CXE mechanism for the emission is consistent, overall, with the temporal and spectral behavior expected for a slow, hot wind typical of low latitude emission from the solar corona interacting with the comet's neutral coma, with intermittent impulsive events due to solar flares and coronal mass ejections.     

Advances in Numerical Modeling of Astrophysical and Space Plasmas

Advances in the simulation of astrophysical and cosmic plasmas are the direct result of advances in computational capabilities, today consisting of new techniques such as multilevel concurrent simulation, multi-teraflop computational platforms and experimental facilities for producing and diagnosing plasmas under extreme conditions for the benchmarking of simulations. Examples of these are the treatment of mesoscalic plasma and the scaling to astrophysical and cosmic dimensions and the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative whose goal is to construct petaflop (10¹⁵ floating operations per second) computers, and pulsed power and laser inertial confinement plasmas where megajoules of energy are delivered to highly-diagnosed plasmas. This paper concentrates on the achievements to date in simulating and experimentally producing plasmas scaled to both astrophysical and cosmic plasma dimensions. A previous paper (Part I, Peratt, 1997) outlines the algorithms and computational growth.     

Relative contributions of sublimation and volcanoes to Io's atmosphere inferred from its plasma interaction during solar eclipse

We present a model that describes Io's delayed electrodynamic response to a temporal change in Io's atmosphere. Our model incorporates the relevant physical processes involved in Io's atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere electrodynamic interaction to predict the far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation as Io enters Jupiter's shadow and re-emerges into sunlight. The predicted FUV brightnesses are highly nonlinear as the strength of the electrodynamic interaction depends on the ratios of ionospheric conductances to the torus Alfvén conductance, but the former are functions of electrodynamics and the atmospheric density, which decays rapidly upon entering eclipse. Key factors governing the time evolution are the column density due to sublimation and the column density due to volcanoes, which maintain the background atmosphere during eclipse. The plasma interaction does not react instantaneously, but lags to a temporarily changing atmosphere. We find three qualitatively different scenarios with two of them including a post-eclipse brightening. The brightness ratio of in-sunlight/in-eclipse coupled with the existence of a sub-jovian equatorial spot constrains the volcanic column density to several times 10¹⁸ m⁻², based on the currently available observations. Thus in sunlight, the sublimation driven part of Io's atmosphere dominates the volcanically driven contribution by roughly a factor of 10 or more.     

Comet Hale–Bopp: Velocity Field Of Ions From Fabry-Pérot Imaging

Fabry-Pérot interferograms of comet Hale-Bopp were obtained on several nights in March and April 1997. For this purpose we utilized the 2-channel focal reducer of the Max-Planck-Institute for Aeronomy at the 2-m telescope of the Pik Terskol Observatory. Solid Fabry-Pérot etalons of resolving power 30000 were used in both channels of the focal reducer. The main aim of this study is to measure the velocities and abundances of OH⁺ and H₂O⁺, both ions closely related to the same parent molecule, H₂O. In the blue channel interferograms we identified several individual OH⁺ rotational lines of the A³Π_i - X³Σ⁻ (0-0) transition and measured their Doppler shifts. The target emissions in the red channel were the H₂O⁺ lines of the A²A₁ − X²B₁ (10-0) band. We found that the line of sight velocities, obtained from the Doppler shifted wavelengths of emissions in the comet are higher in sunward direction than in the plasma tail and do not exceed 20 km s^–1. The corresponding values, deprojected in antisolar direction, are consistent with predictions by magnetohydrodynamical models of the solar-wind-comet interaction, when one accounts for the extremely high gas production rate of comet Hale-Bopp. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sources of Inaccuracy in Boron Isotope Measurement Using LA-MC-ICP-MS

Laser ablation multi-collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) has become a valuable tool for the in situ measurement of the boron isotope composition of geological samples at high (tens to hundreds of μm) spatial resolution. That said, this application suffers from significant analytical challenges. We focus in this study on the underlying processes of two of the main causes for inaccuracies using this technique. We provide empirical evidence that not only Ca ions (Sadekov et al. 2019, Standish et al. 2019, Evans et al. 2021) but also Ar ions, that are reflected within the flight tube of the mass spectrometer, are the source for previously reported issues with spectral baselines. We also address the impact of plasma conditions on the instrumental mass fractionation as a source for matrix- and mass-load-related analytical biases. Comparing experimental data with the results of a dedicated release and diffusion model (RDM) we estimate that a close to complete (~ 97%) release of boron from the sample aerosol is needed to allow for consistently accurate LA boron isotope measurement results without the need for corrections.     

O_2和H_2O对脉冲电晕分解NO的影响

在脉冲电晕放电条件下,探讨了O2和H2O对NO分解反应过程的影响,并对复杂组分中NO的分解特性进行了实验研究。研究结果表明,脉冲电晕放电对NO分解反应具有一定的促进作用,可有效地分解模拟烟气中的NO,脱除效率随脉冲电压的增加而缓慢增加;受O2和H2O影响,NO分解转化率较N2氛围略有降低。     

O2和H2O对脉冲电晕分解NO的影响

在脉冲电晕放电条件下，探讨了O2和H=O对NO分解反应过程的影响，并对复杂组分中NO的分解特性进行了实验研究。研究结果表明，脉冲电晕放电对NO分解反应具有一定的促进作用，可有效地分解模拟烟气中的NO，脱除效率随脉冲电压的增加而缓慢增加；受O2和H2O影响，NO分解转化率较N2氛围略有降低。     

Interstellar scintillation and clouds of the interstellar turbulent plasma

Data on interstellar diffraction and refraction scintillation of pulsars are analyzed. Comparison between theory and the observational data shows that two types of spectra for electron density fluctuations are realized in the interstellar medium: pure power law and piecewise with a break. The distribution of turbulent plasma in the Galaxy has a three component structure. Component A is diffuse and it is distributed outside of the spiral arms of the Galaxy. Component BI is cloudy and associated with Galactic arms. Component BII is extremely nonuniform and associated with HII regions and supernova remnants. The origin of the interstellar plasma turbulence is considered, and possible sources of turbulent energy are discussed. The contribution of supernova bursts in the interstellar gas ionization and generation of turbulence are analyzed among other factors. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.