Cold Facts Digital – Page 63 – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

US and India Expand Partnership in Search of Neutrinos

Scientists from the United States and India have a long history of scientific collaboration—including the discovery of the top quark— and now US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and India’s Atomic Energy Secretary Dr. Sekhar Basu have signed an agreement to expand cutting-edge neutrino science projects underway in both countries.

MiniBooNE Probes the Nucleus with Muon Neutrinos

Scientists working on the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (CSA CSM) report that they were able to identify exactly-known-energy muon neutrinos hitting the atoms at the heart of the particle detector. The result, published in Physical Review Letters, eliminates a major source of uncertainty when testing theoretical models...

UH Scientists Working on Liquid Argon System for Dark Matter Experiment in Italy

The University of Houston is helping to develop technology for DarkSide, a dark matter experiment at Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory. The UH team is both upgrading the DarkSide program’s first physics detector and working on an upgrade that will hold 3,800 gallons of liquid argon.

IARPA Moving Forward with SuperTools Project

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has announced research contracts for its “SuperTools” program, a multi-year research effort to develop comprehensive software tools for designing and analyzing superconducting electronics circuits.

Physicists Build New Molecules in Ultracold Soup

Using lasers, a team of US and Austrian physicists have coaxed ultracold strontium atoms into complex “Rydberg polarons." The molecules are only stable near absolute zero, where the millikelvin temperatures keep the constituent atoms still long enough to become “glued together” in new, complex structures.

Global Physics Photowalk 2018

Major science laboratories from around the world have announced the 2018 Global Physics Photowalk, a competition open to amateur and professional photographers. For the event, physics facilities in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America will open their doors for a rare opportunity to see behind the scenes of some of...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

Latest in Cryo Central

Magnets

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...

Energy Storage

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...

Astronomy

ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...

Cryocoolers

What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Power usage: cryogenic systems vs. regular refrigerators

A recent project highlighted to me that closed cycle cryogenic cooling systems use far more electrical power to reduce temperatures by a few watts than regular refrigerators. I am sure it must be something to do with the extra difficulty of removing the heat from the liquid nitrogen or similar...

Redundancy strategies for mechanical -80C freezers

I was wondering what kind of redundancy strategies are people using for their mechanical -80C freezers? I am aware of the following. Please add if you are doing something different. 1) 1 Backup freezer for every 10 freezers – Empty and maintained at -80C at all times 2) Backup C02...

Safety guidelines for handling cryo vessels of nitrogen

I am looking for any safety guidelines for handling cryogenic vessels of nitrogen indoors and outdoors. I am especially interested in recommendations for area monitors to detect leaks, flow detection devices, etc.

Method to move components in a cryogenic environment

Does anyone know of a method with which to reliably move components in a cryogenic environment? We are interested in moving detectors in a cryogenically cooled (2K) vacuum chamber, which is contained within a larger cryostat/isolation vacuum with thermal shields. As the desired horizontal or vertical displacement is between 10...

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