Performance of a proximity cryogenic system for the ATLAS central solenoid magnet

The ATLAS central solenoid magnet has been designed and constructed as a collaborative work between KEK and CERN for the ATLAS experiment in the LHC project The solenoid provides an axial magnetic field of 2 Tesla at the center of the tracking volume of the ATLAS detector. The solenoid is installed in a common cryostat of a liquid-argon calorimeter in order to minimize the mass of the cryostat wall. The coil is cooled indirectly by using two-phase helium flow in a pair of serpentine cooling line. The cryogen is supplied by the ATLAS cryogenic plant, which also supplies helium to the Toroid magnet systems. The proximity cryogenic system for the solenoid has two major components: a control dewar and a valve unit In addition, a programmable logic controller, PLC, was prepared for the automatic operation and solenoid test in Japan. This paper describes the design of the proximity cryogenic system and results of the performance test. (7 refs).