A Sensitive Method for the Fast and Simultaneous Determination of δ15N- and δ18O-Values in Nitrate

A new method for on-line measurements of the isotopic abundances of N and O in nitrate using a Pyrolysis-GC-IRMS system is presented. The salt is heated to 1200°C together with graphite powder, the reaction products are separated by a GC column and allowed into an IRMS. The sample size could be reduced to 200 nmoles element for one measurement, which can be performed within 10 minutes with an accuracy of better than 1‰.     

Standardization for oxygen isotope ratio measurement - still an unsolved problem

Numerous organic and inorganic laboratory standards were gathered from nine European and North American laboratories and were analyzed for their delta(18)O values with a new on-line high temperature pyrolysis system that was calibrated using Vienna standard mean ocean water (VSMOW) and standard light Antartic precipitation (SLAP) internationally distributed reference water samples. Especially for organic materials, discrepancies between reported and measured values were high, ranging up to 2 per thousand. The reasons for these discrepancies are discussed and the need for an exact and reliable calibration of existing reference materials, as well as for the establishment of additional organic and inorganic reference materials is stressed. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On-line delta(18)O measurement of organic and inorganic substances

A method for the automated sample conversion and on-line oxygen isotope ratio (delta(18)O) determination for organic and inorganic substances is presented. The samples are pyrolytically decomposed at 1400 degrees C in the presence of nickelized graphite. With the system presented organic as well as inorganic samples such as nitrates, sulphates and phosphates of 50-100 &mgr;g O can be analyzed for their delta(18)O values with a standard deviation usually better than 0.5 per thousand. Additionally, carbon isotope ratios of organic substances and nitrogen isotope ratios of inorganic nitrogenous compounds are available in the same sample run. Data for international and some inter-laboratory reference materials are presented to show the accuracy and reliability of the method. The effect of some additives on the CO yield was checked for substances which do not pyrolyze completely. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Landau Problem on the θ-Deformed Two-Torus

We study the Landau problem on the -deformed two-torus and use well-known projective modules to obtain perturbed energy spectra. For a strong magnetic field B, the problem can be restricted to one particular Landau level. First we represent generators of the algebra of the noncommutative torus T ² as finite-dimensional matrices. A second approach leads to a reducible representation with a -dependent center. For a simple periodic potential, the rational part of the Hofstadter butterfly spectrum is obtained.