Narrow Results

It is demonstrated in this work, that PIXE is a good mass indicator for suspended particles in urban environments. Results are presented for several samplings performed in urban and other environments in Chile and other countries. Aerosols were collected on filters operated by a Stacked Filter Unit (SFU) in the range of particles < 15 µm (PM₁₅) and < 10 µm (PM₁₀), mainly the respirable fraction. For samplings performed in downtown Santiago, the sum of the concentrations of the elements detected by PIXE correlated well with the indices of respirable suspended particles (RSP) measured by gravimetry. There was no high correlation for other samplings, near a crushing plant and near mineral storage. On the average, the sum of the PIXE results for Santiago’s aerosols represents about the 15% of the total mass collected in the respirable fraction. A measurement of collection efficiency for the 0.4 µm Nuclepore filter was performed by means of PIXE and gravimetry. These results were η_PIXE=0.98 and η_balance=0.96, for the PIXE and the gravimetric method.

There are discernible and fundamental differences between clocks, waves and physical states in classical physics. These fundamental concepts find a common expression in the context of quantum physics in gravitational fields; matter and light waves, quantum states and oscillator clocks become quantum synonymous through the Planck–Einstein–de Broglie relations and the equivalence principle. With this insight, gravitational effects on quantum systems can be simply and accurately analyzed. Apart from providing a transparent framework for conceptual and quantitative thinking on matter waves and quantum states in a gravitational field, we address and resolve with clarity the recent controversial discussions on the important issue of the relation and the crucial difference between gravimetery using atom interferometers and the measurement of gravitational time dilation.

Several experimental detections have demonstrated the existence of Borromean states predicted by Vitaly Efimov within a nuclear physics context, that is, trimers bound despite the absence of bound states of any of the two-body subsystems. I show that novel Efimov Physics is expected in gravitationally polarizable nonbaryonic dark matter beyond the Standard Model with van der Waals-like forces driven by quantum gravitational fluctuations. I also discuss ground and space-based tests of spacetime curvature effects on weakly bound, highly diffuse quantum three-body systems with standard electrodynamical van der Waals forces. Finally, I consider exotic gravitational quantum matter from higher-order Brunnian structures and analogies with classical systems, already proven in three-stranded DNA, driven by the stochastic gravitational wave background.