Martian dichotomy from the TGD point of view

Mars has a very strange property called Martian dichotomy (see this). The Northern and Southern hemispheres of Mars are very different. The crust is significantly thicker in southern highlands than in northern lowlands. The mountains at southern highlands rise even 6 kilometers higher than in northern lowlands. Southern rocks are magnetized suggesting that Mars has had a large scale magnetic field. Mars still has short scale magnetic fields as the appearance of Martian auroras tells. Southern highlands appear to be older than the northern lowlands: the age is estimated from the density of impact craters. It is also believed that there has been a vast water ocean in northern lowlands.

Several explanations have been proposed. A mega-impact or several impacts could have produced the depression in the crust in the northern lowlands area. Second explanation is in terms of plate tectonics which would be asymmetric.

Also Mars has analogues of earthquakes. They could be called marsquakes. It is claimed that the study of the marsquakes has led to the understanding of the Martian dichotomy: see the popular article and the original article. Its origin would relate to the dynamics deep inside the planet. The new finding is that the seismic waves associated with the marsquakes lose energy quicker in southern highlands. This would mean that the temperature in highlands is higher. These findings suggest that the asymmetry is caused by the internal dynamics of Mars rather than impacts.

What could one say about the Martian dichotomy in the TGD framework. TGD adds two new pieces to the puzzle.

1. Moon has an analogous asymmetry but now the hemispheres correspond to the hemisphere that we see always and the hemisphere we never see. This is due to the phase locking of the spinning rotation of the Moon with its orbital rotation around Earth. The TGD based model (see this) assumes that Earth has lost its upper layer in a mini big bang (see this and this), which then formed the Moon. The inner and outer surfaces of the Moon would correspond to the lower and upper boundary of the layer respectively and this would explain their difference.
2. The crazy idea is that the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars could have lost different masses in an asymmetric mini big bang leading to the birth of Phobos and Deimos, the two Moons of Mars (this). The asymmetry should reflect itself in the properties of these moons. The moons have an irregular shape. Phobos has a diameter of 22.2 km, mass 1.1× 10¹⁶ kg, and semimajor axis 13.5 km. Deimos has a diameter of 12.6 km, mass 1.5 × 10¹⁵ kg, and semimajor axis 23.5 km.
3. This suggests the associations northern hemisphere-more massive Deimos-thicker crust-earlier-farther from Mars and southern hemisphere-lighter Phobos-thinner crust-later-nearer to Mars.

   The more massive Deimos would have originated in a mini big bang throwing out a considerably thicker layer from the northern Martian hemisphere. This would explain the thinner northern crust. Large fraction of the magnetic field associated with the surface layer would have blown out. The TGD view of magnetic fields of the Earth and Sun the monopole flux tube part of the magnetic fields would have a part concentrated in a surface layer. Deimos would have originated later than Phobos. One could understand why the southern hemisphere has thicker crust, why it has more impact craters and therefore looks older, and why it still has a magnetic field consisting of monopole flux tubs. The orbital parameters do not depend on the mass of the Moon (Equivalence Principle). Deimos would have however originated earlier and received a recoil momentum and would be now farther from Mars and Phobos.

The key question concerns the energetics of the transition. Where comes the energy compensating the reduction of the gravitational binding energy. An analogous question is encountered in the model for the formation of the Moon as a mini Big Bangs throwing a spherical layer from the surface of Earth. It is also encountered in the TGD version of the Expanding Earth model (see this and this) assuming that the radius of Earth grew by a factor 2 in a relatively short time scale and induced Cambrian Explosion as life from underground oceans bursted to the surface. Mini Big Bangs would also cause the formation of planets as a surface layer of a star explodes (see this and this). Also supernovas would be explosions of this kind. Micro Big Bangs could give rise to solar wind and solar eruptions (see this).

The magnetic fields should play an important role so that an estimate for the cyclotron energy in the case of a solar magnetic field is in order.

1. For the Earth the cyclotron frequency of proton in the endogenous magnetic field, with a nominal value B_end = .2 Gauss assigned with the monopole flux tubes, is 300 Hz, and the corresponding energy is E_c= ℏ_gr,EeB/m_p= 4.6 eV. This energy is higher than the gravitational binding energy of protons of about 1 eV at the surface of Earth. This could make it possible for transition ℏ_gr,E→ ℏ or a transition 1/β₀=n→ n-1 to provide the energy needed for the explosion throwing a surface layer of the Earth giving rise to Moon.

   The existence of this kind a layer and reduction of ℏ_gr, say a transition 1/β₀= 2→ 1 could make energetically possible also the expansion of the radius of the Earth by a factor 2.

2. What does one obtain in the case of Mars? Could the gravitational binding energy be compensated by the liberation of dark cyclotron energy as the value ℏ_gr=GMm_p/β₀ for Mars is reduced to a smaller value. The ratio of the mass of Mars to that of Earth is M_Mars/M_E∼ .1. If the monopole flux tubes carry a magnetic field of strength B_end,E=.2 Gauss the cyclotron energy of the proton is scaled down to .46 eV. The gravitational binding energy for protons at the surface of the Earth is about 1 eV and at the surface of Mars about .1 eV. Also now the liberation of the dark cyclotron energy for protons in a phase transition increasing the value of β₀ could make the explosion of the surface layer possible.

See the article Moon is a mysterious object and the chapter Magnetic bubbles in TGD Universe: part I.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

For the lists of articles (most of them published in journals founded by Huping Hu) and books about TGD see this.