Response : Strange Xenon, Extinct Superheavy Elements, and the Solar Neutrino Puzzle

Abstract

Anders and coworkers (Science, v. 190, p. 1251, 1262 (1975)) have suggested decay in situ of a volatile superheavy element 115 (or 114, 113) to explain the enrichment of heavy Xe isotopes in mineral fractions of the Allende meteorite. Manuel and Sabu attempt to show that the scenario described by Anders et al. cannot account for their experimental results, that these new data provide additional evidence in support of their own earlier suggestion that the isotopically anomalous Xe in the Allende and other carbonaceous chondrites was produced prior to incorporation into meteorite minerals, that the elemental and isotopic ratios of noble gases in these meteorite minerals contain an important record of the nuclear processes that produced the chemical elements, and that this record of element synthesis offers a possible explanation for the solar neutrino puzzle. Anders et al. respond that Manuel and Sabu have misunderstood the data (of Anders et al.). The samples were mixtures of two distinct phases, each with its own characteristic noble gas component. The correlations stressed by Manuel and Sabu would then be a trivial consequence of the fact that all the samples are mixtures of the two phases. 1 table. (RWR)