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Alternative hypothesis for the origin of CCF xenon

Abstract

I SUGGEST that the anomalous xenon isotopic composition known as carbonaceous chondrite fission (CCF) xenon is not caused by fission, but is the direct result of a modified r-process nucleosynthesis which produces an abundance peak at Z = 54 and the magic neutron number N = 82. I further propose that the xenon so produced (‘R xenon’) was trapped in dust grains, which were subsequently incorporated in the solar system with minimal degassing. This hypothesis also provides a natural explanation for the intimate association between R xenon and a newly discovered xenon component in primitive meteorites1,2.

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BLACK, D. Alternative hypothesis for the origin of CCF xenon. Nature 253, 417–419 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/253417a0

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