Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
There are not one, but TWO rings in the LHC tunnel. You may be familiar with the ring of magnets that steers our protons around our circular collider. But there is also a thinner, less famous ring in the tunnel. It keeps our superconducting magnets cool by extracting heat away from them, using a phenomenon known as a phase transition. This #TeachingTuesday, we continue our Adventures at low temperatures miniseries, by exploring the transitions between different phases of matter, and how they can help us draw heat away from the LHC.
As part of the education portfolio of #CERNScienceGateway, the #CERNSolvayEducation programme was launched by CERN jointly with @SolvayGroup for the #STEMeducation of high-schoolers. It is designed for teenagers who want to go beyond high-school physics and get an introduction to CERN #physics and #technology. In each video, you can test your understanding by answering quiz questions. If you are at least 16 years old, you can enrol for free in the online CERN-Solvay Education Programme towards obtaining a digital certificate, which will allow you to apply for a CERN-Solvay residential student camp.
Find here the interactive version of this video: https://cern.ch/transitions
Enrol for free in the online course of the CERN-Solvay Education Programme: https://cern.ch/solvay-course
Find here all the videos of the CERN-Solvay Education Programme: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAk-9e5KQYEpoWZHUQJQHE0bNSJX9bm_O
____________________________________________________
Chapters
0:00-1:49 Introduction
1:49-10:24 Phase transitions
10:24-16:54 Metastable states
16:54-26:00 Latent heat
26:00-30:47 Continuous phase transitions
____________________________________________________
External works referenced in this video:
Scanning for particle tracks in 1970 – https://videos.cern.ch/record/2299808
Physicist Studying Alpha Rays – commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Physicist_Studying_Alpha_Rays_GPN-2000-000381.jpg
Saclay 81 cm liquid hydrogen bubble chamber – https://cds.cern.ch/record/2743071
____________________________________________________
Sources and materials to go further:
HyperPhysics: Phase Change Concepts – http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/phasecon.html
Giorgio Parisi, In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonders of Complex Systems – penguinrandomhouse.com/books/712959/in-a-flight-of-starlings-by-giorgio-parisi
Vsauce, Cooling down water by BOILING it – youtube.com/shorts/uHGE2i7Wd3s
The Physics Hypertextbook: Phases – physics.info/phases
Jean-Michel Courty, Édouard Kierlik: Les chauferettes chimiques – https://www.pourlascience.fr/sd/physique/les-chaufferettes-chimiques-892.php
Philippe Lebrun, Laurent Tavian: Cooling with Superfluid Helium – https://cds.cern.ch/record/1974065
Philippe Lebrun, Laurent Tavian: Quantum fluids at work: Superconductivity and superfluid helium at the large hadron collider – doi.org/10.1051/epn/2022108
Germana Riddone, Ralf Trant: The Compound Cryogenic Distribution Line for the LHC : Status and Prospects – https://cds.cern.ch/record/593686
The Action Lab, What Happens When a Liquid Turns Supercritical? – youtube.com/watch?v=zv4sE7R8QO4
There are not one, but TWO rings in the LHC tunnel. You may be familiar with the ring of magnets that steers our protons around our circular collider. But there is also a thinner, less famous ring in the tunnel. It keeps our superconducting magnets cool by extracting heat away from them, using a phenomenon known as a phase transition. This #TeachingTuesday, we continue our Adventures at low temperatures miniseries, by exploring the transitions between different phases of matter, and how they can help us draw heat away from the LHC.
As part of the education portfolio of #CERNScienceGateway, the #CERNSolvayEducation programme was launched by CERN jointly with @SolvayGroup for the #STEMeducation of high-schoolers. It is designed for teenagers who want to go beyond high-school physics and get an introduction to CERN #physics and #technology. In each video, you can test your understanding by answering quiz questions. If you are at least 16 years old, you can enrol for free in the online CERN-Solvay Education Programme towards obtaining a digital certificate, which will allow you to apply for a CERN-Solvay residential student camp.
Find here the interactive version of this video: https://cern.ch/transitions
Enrol for free in the online course of the CERN-Solvay Education Programme: https://cern.ch/solvay-course
Find here all the videos of the CERN-Solvay Education Programme: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAk-9e5KQYEpoWZHUQJQHE0bNSJX9bm_O
____________________________________________________
Chapters
0:00-1:49 Introduction
1:49-10:24 Phase transitions
10:24-16:54 Metastable states
16:54-26:00 Latent heat
26:00-30:47 Continuous phase transitions
____________________________________________________
External works referenced in this video:
Scanning for particle tracks in 1970 – https://videos.cern.ch/record/2299808
Physicist Studying Alpha Rays – commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Physicist_Studying_Alpha_Rays_GPN-2000-000381.jpg
Saclay 81 cm liquid hydrogen bubble chamber – https://cds.cern.ch/record/2743071
____________________________________________________
Sources and materials to go further:
HyperPhysics: Phase Change Concepts – http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/phasecon.html
Giorgio Parisi, In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonders of Complex Systems – penguinrandomhouse.com/books/712959/in-a-flight-of-starlings-by-giorgio-parisi
Vsauce, Cooling down water by BOILING it – youtube.com/shorts/uHGE2i7Wd3s
The Physics Hypertextbook: Phases – physics.info/phases
Jean-Michel Courty, Édouard Kierlik: Les chauferettes chimiques – https://www.pourlascience.fr/sd/physique/les-chaufferettes-chimiques-892.php
Philippe Lebrun, Laurent Tavian: Cooling with Superfluid Helium – https://cds.cern.ch/record/1974065
Philippe Lebrun, Laurent Tavian: Quantum fluids at work: Superconductivity and superfluid helium at the large hadron collider – doi.org/10.1051/epn/2022108
Germana Riddone, Ralf Trant: The Compound Cryogenic Distribution Line for the LHC : Status and Prospects – https://cds.cern.ch/record/593686
The Action Lab, What Happens When a Liquid Turns Supercritical? – youtube.com/watch?v=zv4sE7R8QO4
