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There is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling system

We evaluate speculation about the possibility of a dangerous release of energy within the liquid Helium of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryogenic system due to the occurrence of a "Bose-Nova". Bose-Novae are radial bursts of rapidly moving atoms which can occur when a Bose-Einstein Cond...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fairbairn, Malcolm, McElrath, Bob
Lenguaje:eng
Publicado: 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:http://cds.cern.ch/record/1128667
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author Fairbairn, Malcolm
McElrath, Bob
author_facet Fairbairn, Malcolm
McElrath, Bob
author_sort Fairbairn, Malcolm
collection CERN
description We evaluate speculation about the possibility of a dangerous release of energy within the liquid Helium of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryogenic system due to the occurrence of a "Bose-Nova". Bose-Novae are radial bursts of rapidly moving atoms which can occur when a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) undergoes a collapse due the interatomic potential being deliberately made attractive using a magnetic field close to the Feshbach resonance. Liquid 4He has a monatomic structure with s-wave electrons, zero nuclear spin, no hyperfine splitting, and as a consequence no Feshbach resonance which would allow one to change its normally repulsive interactions to be attractive. Because of this, a Bose-Nova style collapse of 4He is impossible. Additional speculations concerning cold fusion during these events are easily dismissed using the usual arguments about the Coulomb barrier at low temperatures, and are not needed to explain the Bose-Einstein condensate Bose-Nova phenomenon. We conclude that that there is no physics whatsoever which suggests that Helium could undergo any kind of unforeseen catastrophic explosion.
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institution Organización Europea para la Investigación Nuclear
language eng
publishDate 2008
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spelling cern-11286672023-03-12T05:28:23Zhttp://cds.cern.ch/record/1128667engFairbairn, MalcolmMcElrath, BobThere is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling systemPhysics in GeneralWe evaluate speculation about the possibility of a dangerous release of energy within the liquid Helium of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryogenic system due to the occurrence of a "Bose-Nova". Bose-Novae are radial bursts of rapidly moving atoms which can occur when a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) undergoes a collapse due the interatomic potential being deliberately made attractive using a magnetic field close to the Feshbach resonance. Liquid 4He has a monatomic structure with s-wave electrons, zero nuclear spin, no hyperfine splitting, and as a consequence no Feshbach resonance which would allow one to change its normally repulsive interactions to be attractive. Because of this, a Bose-Nova style collapse of 4He is impossible. Additional speculations concerning cold fusion during these events are easily dismissed using the usual arguments about the Coulomb barrier at low temperatures, and are not needed to explain the Bose-Einstein condensate Bose-Nova phenomenon. We conclude that that there is no physics whatsoever which suggests that Helium could undergo any kind of unforeseen catastrophic explosion.We evaluate speculation about the possibility of a dangerous release of energy within the liquid Helium of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryogenic system due to the occurrence of a "Bose-Nova". Bose-Novae are radial bursts of rapidly moving atoms which can occur when a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) undergoes a collapse due the interatomic potential being deliberately made attractive using a magnetic field close to the Feshbach resonance. Liquid 4He has a monatomic structure with s-wave electrons, zero nuclear spin, no hyperfine splitting, and as a consequence no Feshbach resonance which would allow one to change its normally repulsive interactions to be attractive. Because of this, a Bose-Nova style collapse of 4He is impossible. Additional speculations concerning cold fusion during these events are easily dismissed using the usual arguments about the Coulomb barrier at low temperatures, and are not needed to explain the Bose-Einstein condensate Bose-Nova phenomenon. We conclude that that there is no physics whatsoever which suggests that Helium could undergo any kind of unforeseen catastrophic explosion.arXiv:0809.4004oai:cds.cern.ch:11286672008-09-25
spellingShingle Physics in General
Fairbairn, Malcolm
McElrath, Bob
There is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling system
title There is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling system
title_full There is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling system
title_fullStr There is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling system
title_full_unstemmed There is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling system
title_short There is no explosion risk associated with superfluid Helium in the LHC cooling system
title_sort there is no explosion risk associated with superfluid helium in the lhc cooling system
topic Physics in General
url http://cds.cern.ch/record/1128667
work_keys_str_mv AT fairbairnmalcolm thereisnoexplosionriskassociatedwithsuperfluidheliuminthelhccoolingsystem
AT mcelrathbob thereisnoexplosionriskassociatedwithsuperfluidheliuminthelhccoolingsystem