Alloy simulated on computer from quantum physics

That has changed thanks to the work of an international team of researchers from the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris (CNRS, Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité), EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and the University College London (UK). These researchers have just published an article on this thorny problem in the renowned journal PNAS .

Methods numerical called dynamic molecular dynamics, network and Monte Carlo can simulate cheap behavior of solids and liquids under conditions of pressure and temperature extremes yet unattainable in the laboratory. Researchers have used the first using a computer. free printable coloring pages It allows to calculate ab initio forces quantum between the atoms forming different metal alloys of iron, nickel and other light elements ( carbon , oxygen, silicon, sulfur) and the behavior of these alloys when they are crossed by seismic waves. It is therefore possible to derive a spectrum for these waves characteristic depending on the temperature, pressure and composition of the alloy and to the comparison with the data of seismology.

Geophysicists believe they have succeeded in showing that the core must contain oxygen. It may also contain in addition to silicon, sulfur or carbon. The solution that best matches the observations that is obtained assuming that oxygen is the only element present light and constitutes 6 to 7% of the alloy of iron and nickel. If they are right, this geochemical model of the core poses constraints for models of formation of the Earth built by planetary scientists and astronomers who are trying to understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System , and exoplanets .