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Title: Do argon rectification and gas properties explain noble-gas sonoluminescence trends?
Plain: Air bubbles glow steadily only because nitrogen and oxygen react away and leave behind the 1 percent of argon in air, and bubbles with heavier noble gases such as xenon glow brighter. Is this chemistry, plus how well each gas conducts heat, enough to predict the brightness and stability for every noble gas?
Precise: For single-bubble sonoluminescence in water with dissolved gas concentration c_inf/c_0 and noble-gas species He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, predict from bubble dynamics with chemistry, heat conduction and water-vapor trapping the stable region in the (P_a, c_inf/c_0) plane and the light yield per flash for each gas, including the large yield increase from He to Xe. An answer is a single model that matches measured phase diagrams and yields for all five gases.
Settled by: A side-by-side comparison of measured phase diagrams and absolute light yields for all five noble gases with one parameter-free simulation.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: mechanism
References: (empty)
Literature status: partially-resolved
Status note: Argon rectification is supported by phase-diagram experiments since 1997; no quantitative first-principles account of how light yield depends on the gas as of 2026 (not re-verified for 2024-2026).
Posed since: 1997