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.
The first of these, colloquially referred to as holography, in its simplest form posits a mapping of d-dimensional conformal field theory (boundary) partition functions onto d+1 dimensional gravitational(bulk) partition functions, where the space-time carries a negative cosmological constant. In this dissertation I discuss the results of our calculations examining the emergence of Fermi-surface like structures in the bulk spacetime despite the absence of explicit Fermions in the theory.Specifically the 4+1 dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory with scalar degrees of freedom, with and without symmetry breaking is considered. These theories are gravity duals to spatially modulated gauge theories. The results of calculations presented here indicate the existence of a rich phase space, most prominently Fermi shells are seen.
The second set of dualities considered are the color-kinematic duality, also known as the double-copy paradigm and the fluid-gravity duality. The color-kinematic duality involves identifying spin-2 amplitudes as squares of spin-1 gauge amplitudes. This double copy picture is utilized to construct “single copy” representations for space- times where Einstein’s equations reduce to incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In this dissertation I show how spacetimes that characterize irrotational fluids and constant vorticity fluids each map to distinct algebraically special spacetimes. The Maxwell fields obtained via the double-copy picture for such spacetimes further provide interesting parallels, for instance, the vorticity of the fluid is proportional to the magnetic field of the associated gauge field.
We present a model explaining the 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 H2. We argue that external photoevaporation by far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation from nearby massive stars removed H2, 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 (lesssim 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. We recognize that cold temperatures alone do not trap volatiles; continuous water vapor production is also necessary. We demonstrate that FUV fluxes that photoevaporated the disk generated sufficient water vapor in regions [< over ~]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 predicts a factor of three 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 protoplanetary disks in H II regions.