NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/sci/physics/fusion/3219

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-08 | 3.6 KB

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Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion
Subject: Re: Bubbles/Cavitation Fusion in D2 Liquid
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
From: [e-mail]
Date: 8 Jan 93 14:05:38 -0700
References: <[e-mail]>
Distribution: world
Organization: Brigham Young University
Lines: 55

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
> Terry Bollinger has been corresponding with me about his bubble ideas.  This
> has reminded me that Fermilab once had a 15' bubble chamber, and there have
> been many other bubble chambers operated over the years.
>
> To introduce bubble chambers, I am reminded fo physics folk lore.  It seems
> Don Glasser was opening a bottle of beer, and noticed a streak of bubbles
> that appeared as he opened it.  Being a good physicist, he tried to explain
> the streak, and concluded that a cosmic ray had passed through the bottle just
> as he opened it.  The cosmic ray left ionized beer molecules which then became
> the nucleation sites for bubbles which formed in the super heated beer caused
> by the decompression of the opening.  Fortunately the beer can had not yet
> been invented, so Don Glasser won a Nobel prize.  Ever since physics students
> have been devoted beer drinkers.
>
> Modern bubble chambers worked with a large piston.  Fermilab's was 15' and
> there was at least one even larger.  Someone correct me but I believe that
> there are no bubble chambers currently in operation.  The chambers were
> usually placed inside a large magnet, and surrounded by trigger electronics.
>
> A particle beam would be directed through the chamber, and when the
> the electronics detected an interesting event (like a beam particle in, but no
> beam particle out - meaning there had been an interaction) the piston would
> expand the chamber contents.  Some time later, the time determined by the
> bubble groth rate to get optimum resolution, a flash tube would be fired to
> expose film.  The film was then sent of the measureing machines where the
> tracks (in 3 D) were measured, and computations made on the results.
>
> Now why does this relate to Terry's bubble ideas?  Well sometimes the chambers
> were operated with liquid D2.  Remember, the expansion of the chamber forms
> bubbles.  These colapse some time later.  Perhaps these collapsing bubbles
> cause D - D interactions.  As Terry would say a "far fetch".
>
> What we need is to look at some "double expansions" where the bubble chamber
> was expanded a second time shortly after the first expansion so tracks coming
> off a bubble collapse might be seen.  I know that the Fermilab chamber
> sometimes triggered more than once per spill, i.e. at less than a second after
> the first expansion.  Then there was the PPA chamber that went 20 times a
> second.
>
> So does anyone out there know where to finde such film.  (Douglas Morrison are
> you listening?)
>
> The problem is that bubble chamber experiments are very expensive, and no one
> would likely support running one for such a wild idea.  But if the right old
> film can be found, it might be worth looking.
>
> Tom Droege

Tom, I had the opportunity to work as a graduate student at Fermilab one
summer, 1976 or thereabouts, with Bob Panvini and Firestone.  We used a 200-GeV
proton beam impinging on a deuterium-filled bubble chamber, as I recall.  So
the films from this may have what you are looking for.
Sounds fun, but your search may prove expensive.  Should we pursue this?
--Steve