Kinetics and Energies of Mineralogical Processes

首席研究员将研究矿物物理学中的三个重要问题：晶体生长速率是否随着弹性应变能的增加而在临界尺寸下突然改变？什么因素对单矿物团聚体的晶界扩散速率影响最大？什么能量与矿物中的位错有关？这些能量在多大程度上影响矿物的转化？如果我们要对矿物行为有基本的了解，所有这些研究都很重要。

The principal investigator will study three important questions in mineral physics: Does crystal growth rate change abruptly at a critical size as elastic strain energy increases? What factors most affect grain boundary diffusion rates in monomineralic aggregates? What energies are associated with dislocations in minerals, and to what extent do these affect mineral transformations? All of these studies are important if we are to have fundamental understanding of mineral behavior.