Gravitational-wave research as an emerging field in the Max Planck Society. The long roots of GEO600 and of the Albert Einstein Institute

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary since the beginning of the search for gravitational waves at the Max Planck Society, and in coincidence with the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Albert Einstein Institute, we explore the interplay between the renaissance of general relativity and the advent of relativistic astrophysics following the German early involvement in gravitational-wave research, to the point when gravitational-wave detection became established by the appearance of full-scale detectors and international collaborations. On the background of the spectacular astrophysical discoveries of the 1960s and the growing role of relativistic astrophysics, Ludwig Biermann and his collaborators at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Munich became deeply involved in research related to such new horizons. At the end of the 1960s, Joseph Weber's announcements claiming detection of gravitational waves sparked the decisive entry of this group into the field, in parallel with the appointment of the renowned relativist Juergen Ehlers. The Munich area group of Max Planck institutes provided the fertile ground for acquiring a leading position in the 1970s, facilitating the experimental transition from resonant bars towards laser interferometry and its innovation at increasingly large scales, eventually moving to a dedicated site in Hannover in the early 1990s. The Hannover group emphasized perfecting experimental systems at pilot scales, and never developed a full-sized detector, rather joining the LIGO Scientific Collaboration at the end of the century. In parallel, the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) had been founded in Potsdam, and both sites, in Hannover and Potsdam, became a unified entity in the early 2000s and were central contributors to the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015.Comment: 94 pages. Enlarged version including new results from further archival research. A previous version appears as a chapter in the volume The Renaissance of General Relativity in Context, edited by A. Blum, R. Lalli and J. Renn (Boston: Birkhauser, 2020

Integral Circulation Experiment: Thermal–hydraulic simulator of a heavy liquid metal reactor

In the frame of the IP-EUROTRANS (6th Framework Program EU), domain DEMETRA, ENEA was involved in the Work Package 4.5 “Large Scale Integral Test”, devoted to characterize a relevant portion of a sub-critical ADS reactor block (core, internals, heat exchanger, cladding for fuel elements) in steady state, transient and accidental conditions. More in details ENEA assumed the commitment to perform an integral experiment aiming to reproduce the primary flow path of the “European Transmutation Demonstrator (ETD)” pool-type nuclear reactor, cooled by Lead Bismuth Eutectics (LBE). This experimental activity, called “Integral Circulation Experiment (ICE)”, has been implemented merging the efforts of several research institutes, among which, besides ENEA, FZK, CRS4 and University of Pisa, allowing to design an appropriate test section to be installed in the CIRCE facility. The goal of the experiments is therefore to demonstrate the technological feasibility of a heavy liquid metal (HLM) nuclear system pool-type in a relevant scale (1 MW), investigating the related thermal–hydraulic behaviour (heat source and heat exchanger coupling, primary system and downcomer coupling, gas trapping into the main stream, thermal stratification in the pool, forced and mixed convection in rod bundle) under both steady state and transient conditions. Moreover the preliminary as well as the planned experiments aims to address performance and reliability tests of some prototypical components, such as heat source, heat exchanger, chemistry control system. The paper reports a detailed description of the experiment, the design performed for the test section and its main components as well as the preliminary experimental results carried out in the first experimental campaign run on the CIRCE pool, which consists of a full power steady state test. The preliminary experimental results carried out have demonstrate the proper design of the test section trough the experiment goals as well as the HLM primary system technological viability. Moreover the results depicted into the paper are the first experimental data made available, especially for what concern the HLM pool thermal–hydraulic in a large scale system

International environmental agreements between developing countries only: learning from the Brazil–Uruguay case over the suspicion of acid rain

Air Pollution, Environmental agreements, Bilateral agreement, Implementation, Transboundary pollution, Uruguay, Brazil, Mercosul, Mercosur, Latin America, Bilateral negotiation, Developing countries,