Statistical Tests of Chondrule Sorting

TL;DR

This study applies statistical tests to chondrule size data from various chondrites to evaluate different sorting hypotheses, finding most data consistent with turbulent concentration but inconsistent with certain distribution models.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive statistical analysis testing chondrule size distributions against turbulence-based sorting models.

Findings

Most chondrule data are consistent with turbulent concentration distribution.

Data do not support lognormal or Weibull distributions for chondrule sizes.

The data do not clearly distinguish between different sorting mechanisms.

Abstract

The variation in sizes of chondrules from one chondrite to the next is thought to be due to some sorting process in the early solar nebula. Hypotheses for the sorting process include chondrule sorting by mass and sorting by some aerodynamic mechanism; one such aerodynamic mechanism is the process of turbulent concentration (TC). We present the results of a series of statistical tests of chondrule data from several different chondrites. The data do not clearly distinguish between various options for the sorting parameter, but we find that the data are inconsistent with being drawn from lognormal or (three-parameter) Weibull distributions in chondrule radius. We also find that all but one of the chondrule data sets tested are consistent with being drawn from the TC distribution.