  The Mg/Ne abundance ratio in the quiet Sun is measured in both network and
supergranule cell centre regions through EUV spectra from the Coronal
Diagnostic Spectrometer on SOHO. Twenty four sets of data over the period 1996
March to 1998 June (corresponding to solar minimum) are studied. Emission lines
of the sequences Ne IV-VII and Mg V-VIII are simultaneously analysed by
comparing with theoretical emissivities from the CHIANTI database to yield the
Mg/Ne abundance and emission measure over the temperature region 5.0 < logT <
6.1. The average enhancements over the photospheric Mg/Ne abundance are found
to be 1.25 +/- 0.10 (network) and 1.66 +/- 0.23 (cell centres), significantly
lower than the typical 4-5 enhancements found in the slow solar wind. This
result implies that only a small fraction of the quiet Sun connects into the
solar wind. The quiet Sun spectra are also utilised to determine the coronal
density and temperature, leading to average values of 2.6^+0.5_-0.4 x 10^8
cm^-3 and log (T/K)=5.95 +/- 0.02. No significant trend with the rise in solar
activity during 1996--98 is found for any of the derived quantities, implying
that quiet Sun regions show little dependence on the solar cycle.
