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Liquid or Gas, DUNE Researchers Weigh Transport of Detector’s Argon

Nearly a mile below the surface of South Dakota, scientists are preparing the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, a physics experiment that will look at minuscule particles called neutrinos. A beam of neutrinos will travel 800 miles through the Earth from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (CSA CSM) to the...

Nominations Open for New KEK Director-General

Japan's KEK, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, has announced a worldwide search for its next Director-General, whose term will begin April 1, 2018, and last for three years.

Winners Announced for 2017 Fritz London Memorial Prize

Duke University has announced recipients of its 2017 Fritz London Memorial Prize, choosing Jeevak Parpia of Cornell University and William P. Halperin and James A. Sauls, both from Northwestern University.

Boiloff Calorimetry for the Measurement of Very Low Heat Flows

The use of boiloff calorimetry to measure the effects of thermal energy (or heat) dates back to the early 1900s [1, 2]. Gas flow rates measured in evaporation—or boiloff—calorimetry enable direct calculation of quantities such as heat flux and thermal conductivity. A particularly useful approach is to use nitrogen for...

Remembering the 1987 Woodstock of Physics

Paul Michael Grant was in the room where it happened, and in this essay, he recalls the 1987 APS March Meeting known as the "Woodstock of Physics." It began when Brian Maple, of UC San Diego, took the unprecedented and ambitious step of assembling an “off the program” all night...

Women in Cryogenics and Superconductivity

CSA celebrates women in cryogenics and superconductivity. In this feature, six women in positions across the industry discuss current projects, how they entered the field and their thoughts on attracting more women to the profession.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Cold Compressors

A common way to provide cooling below the normal boiling point of helium (4.2K) is to reduce the pressure above the bath of liquid helium, thus also reducing the bath’s equilibrium saturation temperature. For example, to produce a 1.8K bath of liquid helium, the saturation pressure has to be reduced...

Kapitza Conductance

Kapitza conductance refers to the heat transfer between a solid surface and a fluid that covers that surface. Fundamentally, it describes the inherent difficulty in transferring energy from a solid to the fluid covering the solid surface. This phenomenon was first observed by P. L. Kapitza in 1941 while studying...

Thermosyphons

A thermosyphon (or thermosiphon) is a device that transfers heat via natural convection in a fluid. The natural convection is driven by gravity with the colder, denser fluid flowing downhill and the warmer, less dense fluid flowing back up. Thus, thermosyphons connect an object to be cooled with a reservoir...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

Latest in Ask the Experts

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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