Super-Earth's Mantle Forming Materials at Static Pressures over 500 GPa and High Temperatures

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky
• Subject Area: Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 280637173

Iron-bearing silicate perovskite (bridgmanite, Br) and post-perovskite (CaIrO3-structured phase, PPv), and ferropericlase (Mg,Fe)O are considered to be key components of interiors of super-Earths. Understanding the fate of PPv, ferropericlase and their assembly at multimegabar pressures is the first step for revealing the mineralogy of super-Earthstype exoplanets, arguably the most interesting for their similarities with Earth. Studies of the phase relations, chemical stability, and equations of state of materials possibly forming mantles of extraterrestrial super-Earth type planets are essential to model dynamics of their bodies, evolution, and habitable potential. We are going to investigate the behavior of Fe,Mg,Al silicates and oxides utilizing new developments in ultrahigh pressure generation techniques (double stage (dsDAC) and toroidal (tDAC) diamond anvil cells at multimegabar static pressures, coupled with single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction facilities (at PETRA III and ESRF) and synchrotron Mossbauer source (SMS, ESRF). We expect to collect comprehensive mineral physics data on crystal structures, phase transformations, phase relations, and equations of state of the major constituents of rocky and super-Earth planets.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2440: Matter Under Planetary Interior Conditions - High-Pressure, Planetary and Plasma Physics
• Co-Investigators: Professorin Dr. Natalia Dubrovinskaia; Dr. Konstantin Glazyrin