Commissioning of the LHC Current Leads

The powering of the LHC superconducting magnets relies on more than 3000 current leads transporting the current to/from the cryogenic environment and rated at currents ranging from 60 A to 13000 A. The design of these leads, about 1000 of which are based on high temperature superconducting material, was entirely done at CERN, where prototype assemblies were also assembled and tested, while the series production and testing was done in external laboratories and companies on the basis of build-to-print specifications. This report summarizes the results of the tests performed during the commissioning of the LHC machine, when the leads underwent the thermal and electrical cycles necessary for the powering of the LHC superconducting circuit

Extending the Use of HTS to Feeders in Superconducting Magnet Systems

Following the successful adoption of high temperature superconductors (HTS) in over a thousand current leads that will feed 3 MA from warm to cold in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the use of HTS has been generally accepted as suitable technology for the design of efficient leads feeding cryo-magnets. We now consider the extension of the technology to the interconnection of strings of superconducting magnets and their connection to feed-boxes through which the excitation current is fed. It is proposed to use HTS material for this application instead of low-temperature superconductor or normal-conducting material. The implications of adopting this technology are discussed with regard to the choice of materials, highlighting the differences with more conventional schemes. Examples are given of how this approach could be applied to the consolidation and upgrade of the LHC

Diffusion due to the Beam-Beam Interaction and Fluctuating Fields in Hadron Colliders

Random fluctuations in the tune, beam offsets and beam size in the presence of the beam-beam interaction are shown to lead to significant particle diffusion and emittance growth in hadron colliders. We find that far from resonances high frequency noise causes the most diffusion while near resonances low frequency noise is responsible for the large emittance growth observed. Comparison of different fluctuations shows that offset fluctuations between the beams causes the largest diffusion for particles in the beam core.Comment: 5 pages, 3 postscript figure

Towards the Design of Power Switches Utilizing HTS Material

Conventional superconducting switches for power applications, which operate at liquid helium temperature, generally utilize Nb-Ti superconductor in a cupro-nickel matrix. For superconducting circuits based on High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) that work at higher temperatures, the associated superconducting switches must also be based on HTS. This paper addresses the issues concerning the requirements and the appropriate design of HTS switches, including approaches to fast triggering

The relationship between physical activity, physical fitness and overweight in adolescents: a systematic review of studies published in or after 2000

Background: Not only in adults but also in children and adolescents, obesity increases the risk for several health disorders. In turn, many factors including genetic variations and environmental influences (e.g. physical activity) increase the risk of obesity. For instance, 25 to 40 percent of people inherit a predisposition for a high body mass index (BMI). The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize current cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on physical activity, fitness and overweight in adolescents and to identify mediator and moderator effects by evaluating the interaction between these three parameters. Methods: The electronic academic databases PubMed, SportDiscus, WEB OF KNOWLEDGE and Ovid were searched for studies on physical activity, fitness and overweight in adolescents aged 11 to 19 years (cross-sectional studies) and in adolescents up to 23 years old (longitudinal studies) published in English in or after 2000. Results: Twelve cross-sectional and two longitudinal studies were included. Only four studies analyzed the interaction among physical activity, fitness and overweight in adolescents and reported inconsistent results. All other studies analyzed the relationship between either physical activity and overweight, or between fitness and overweight. Overweight—here including obesity—was inversely related to physical activity. Similarly, all studies reported inverse relations between physical fitness and overweight. Mediator and moderator effects were detected in the interrelationship of BMI, fitness and physical activity. Overall, a distinction of excessive body weight as cause or effect of low levels of physical activity and fitness is lacking. Conclusions: The small number of studies on the interrelationship of BMI, fitness and physical activity emphasizes the need for longitudinal studies that would reveal 1) the causality between physical activity and overweight / fitness and overweight and 2) the causal interrelationships among overweight, physical activity and fitness. These results must be carefully interpreted given the lack of distinction between self-reported and objective physical activity and that studies analyzing the metabolic syndrome or cardiovascular disease were not considered. The importance of physical activity or fitness in predicting overweight remains unknown

Loop Representations for 2+1 Gravity on a Torus

We study the loop representation of the quantum theory for 2+1 dimensional general relativity on a manifold, $M = {\cal T}^2 \times {\cal R}$, where ${\cal T}^2$ is the torus, and compare it with the connection representation for this system. In particular, we look at the loop transform in the part of the phase space where the holonomies are boosts and study its kernel. This kernel is dense in the connection representation and the transform is not continuous with respect to the natural topologies, even in its domain of definition. Nonetheless, loop representations isomorphic to the connection representation corresponding to this part of the phase space can still be constructed if due care is taken. We present this construction but note that certain ambiguities remain; in particular, functions of loops cannot be uniquely associated with functions of connections.Comment: 24 journal or 52 preprint pages, revtex, SU-GP-93/3-