Knowledge of paleo-redox conditions in the Earth’s history provides a window into events that shaped the evolution of life on our planet. The role of microbial activity in paleo-redox processes remains unexplored due to the inability to discriminate biotic from abiotic redox transformations in the rock record. The ability to deconvolute these two processes would provide a means to identify environmental niches in which microbial activity was prevalent at a specific time in paleo-history and to correlate specific biogeochemical events with the corresponding microbial metabolism. Here, we demonstrate that the isotopic signature associated with microbial reduction of hexavalent uranium (U), i.e., the accumulation of the heavy isotope in the U(IV) phase, is readily distinguishable from that generated by abiotic uranium reduction in laboratory experiments. Thus, isotope signatures preserved in the geologic record through the reductive precipitation of uranium may provide the sought-after tool to probe for biotic processes. Because uranium is a common element in the Earth’s crust and a wide variety of metabolic groups of microorganisms catalyze the biological reduction of U(VI), this tool is applicable to a multiplicity of geological epochs and terrestrial environments. The findings of this study indicate that biological activity contributed to the formation of many authigenic U deposits, including sandstone U deposits of various ages, as well as modern, Cretaceous, and Archean black shales. Additionally, engineered bioremediation activities also exhibit a biotic signature, suggesting that, although multiple pathways may be involved in the reduction, direct enzymatic reduction contributes substantially to the immobilization of uranium.

We present a model explaining elemental enrichments in Jupiter's atmosphere, particularly the noble gases Ar, Kr, and Xe. While He, Ne and O are depleted, seven other elements show similar enrichments (∼3 times solar, relative to H). Being volatile, Ar is difficult to fractionate from H 2 . We argue that external photoevaporation by far ultraviolet (FUV) radiation from nearby massive stars removed H 2 , He, and Ne from the solar nebula, but Ar and other species were retained because photoevaporation occurred at large heliocentric distances where temperatures were cold enough ( < ∼ 30 K) to trap them in amorphous water ice. As the solar nebula lost H it became relatively and uniformly enriched in other species. Our model improves on the similar model of Guillot & Hueso (2006). We recognize that cold temperatures alone do not trap volatiles; continuous water vapor production also is necessary. We demonstrate that FUV fluxes that photoevaporated the disk generated sufficient water vapor, in regions < ∼ 30 K, to trap gas-phase species in amorphous water ice, in solar proportions. We find more efficient chemical fractionation in the outer disk: whereas the model of Guillot & Hueso (2006) predicts a factor of 3 enrichment when only < 2% of the disk mass remains, we find the same enrichments when 30% of the disk mass remains. Finally, we predict the presence of ∼ 0.1 M ⊕ of water vapor in the outer solar nebula and in protoplanetary disks in H ii regions.

We revisit the cutoff surface formulation of fluid-gravity duality in the context of the classical double copy. The spacetimes in this fluid-gravity duality are algebraically special, with Petrov type II when the spacetime is four dimensional. We find two special classes of fluids whose dual spacetimes exhibit higher algebraic speciality: constant vorticity flows have type D gravity duals, while potential flows map to type N spacetimes. Using the Weyl version of the classical double copy, we construct associated single-copy gauge fields for both cases, finding that constant vorticity fluids map to a solenoid gauge field. Additionally we find the scalar in a potential flow fluid maps to the zeroth copy scalar.

The structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks, especially the radial flows of gas through them, are sensitive to a number of factors. One that has been considered only occasionally in the literature is external photoevaporation by far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation from nearby, massive stars, despite the fact that nearly half of disks will experience photoevaporation. Another effect apparently not considered in the literature is a spatially and temporally varying value of α in the disk [where the turbulent viscosity ν is α times the sound speed C times the disk scale height H]. Here we use the formulation of Bai & Stone (2011) to relate α to the ionization fraction in the disk, assuming turbulent transport of angular momentum is due to the magnetorotational instability. We calculate the ionization fraction of the disk gas under various assumptions about ionization sources and dust grain properties. Disk evolution is most sensitive to the surface area of dust. We find that typically α 10 −5 in the inner disk (< 2 AU), rising to ∼ 10 −1 beyond 20 AU. This drastically alters the structure of the disk and the flow of mass through it: while the outer disk rapidly viscously spreads, the inner disk hardly evolves; this leads to a steep surface density profile (Σ ∝ r − p with p ≈ 2 − 5 in the 5-30 AU region) that is made steeper by external photoevaporation. We also find that the combination of variable α and external photoevaporation eventually causes gas as close as 3 AU, previously accreting inward, to be drawn outward to the photoevaporated outer edge of the disk. These effects have drastic consequences for planet formation and volatile transport in protoplanetary disks.

Chemical composition affects virtually all aspects of astrobiology, from stellar astrophysics to molecular biology. We present a synopsis of the research results presented at the ''Stellar Stoichiometry'' Workshop Without Walls hosted at Arizona State University April 11-12, 2013, under the auspices of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The results focus on the measurement of chemical abundances and the effects of composition on processes from stellar to planetary scales. Of particular interest were the scientific connections between processes in these normally disparate fields. Measuring the abundances of elements in stars and giant and terrestrial planets poses substantial difficulties in technique and interpretation. One of the motivations for this conference was the fact that determinations of the abundance of a given element in a single star by different groups can differ by more than their quoted errors. The problems affecting the reliability of abundance estimations and their inherent limitations are discussed. When these problems are taken into consideration, self-consistent surveys of stellar abundances show that there is still substantial variation (factors of *2) in the ratios of common elements (e.g., C, O, Na, Al, Mg, Si, Ca) important in rock-forming minerals, atmospheres, and biology. We consider how abundance variations arise through injection of supernova nucleosynthesis products into star-forming material and through photoevaporation of protoplanetary disks. The effects of composition on stellar evolution are substantial, and coupled with planetary atmosphere models can result in predicted habitable zone extents that vary by many tens of percent. Variations in the bulk composition of planets can affect rates of radiogenic heating and substantially change the mineralogy of planetary interiors, affecting properties such as convection and energy transport.