It has been recently demonstrated that inelastic helium-atom scattering from conducting surfaces can provide a direct measurement of the surface electron-phonon coupling constant (mass-enhancement factor ) via the temperature- or the incident-energy-dependence of the Debye-Waller exponent. The analysis of previous published as well as unpublished helium atom scattering diffraction data from the vicinal surfaces of copper (Cu(11),  = 3,5,7) and aluminium (Al(221) and Al(332)) permits to extract  for this class of surfaces, suggesting an enhancement with respect to the corresponding data for the low-index surfaces (111) and (001) above a possible roughening transition temperature. The specific role of steps as compared to that of terraces is briefly discussed.

Based on the fact that the solar system will eventually be destroyed and that humans cannot travel to the nearest habitable exoplanet within a lifetime, this article suggests sending synthetic biology- and AI- created astronauts with some plant characteristics to the closest habitable exoplanet. The paper assesses the potential impact of this future technology on various aspects of human society, including scientific, ethical, and cultural dimensions. As long as these astronauts with some plant characteristics possess human consciousness, it is irrelevant whether they are hybrids of carbon- and silicon- based life forms. They will carry on the human heritage on exoplanets. Humanity has two survival options. The first option is the Martian migration program led by Elon Reeve Musk, which is both visible and realistic. It could provide an immediate option for human continuation and expansion, although it may not help us escape the future burning of the Sun during its red giant phase. The second option involves directly sending astronauts with some plant characteristics beyond the solar system. Escaping to Mars still does not free humans from the risk of extinction. We must strive with all our might; otherwise, humanity will be forever trapped within the solar system, awaiting the inevitable helium flash to come...

In addition to provide an extremely clean environment for primary loop of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR), the primary helium circulator (PHC) using electromagnetic levitation technology also provides an effective means for vibration control. Besides synchronous vibration produced by mass imbalance and sensor runout, double-frequency vibration produced by unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP) is serious in PHC engineering prototype (PHC-EP). In this paper, we firstly analyzed the mechanism of UMP and the multi-frequency vibration characteristics in combination with the PHC-EP. Then we put forward a distributed iterative learning control (ILC) algorithm and a parallel control scheme to suppress the periodic vibrations. Finally, we verified the methods by carrying out experimental researches on the active magnetic bearing (AMB) bench of PHC-EP. The results show that the methods put forward in this paper have significant control effect on the double-frequency vibration generated by UMP of the PHC-EP, and provide theoretical and practical references for the PHC safe operation in HTR.

Significant design efforts were undertaken during the Pre-Concept Design (PCD) phase of the European DEMO programme to optimize the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) breeding blanket. A gate review was conducted for the entire European DEMO programme at the conclusion of the PCD phase. This article presents a summary of the design evolution and the rationale behind the HCPB breeding blanket concept for the European DEMO. The main performance metrics, including nuclear, thermal hydraulics, thermal mechanical, and tritium permeation behaviors, are reported. These figures demonstrate that the HCPB breeding blanket is a highly effective tritium-breeding and robust driver blanket concept for the European DEMO. In addition, three alternative concepts of interest were explored. Furthermore, this article outlines the upcoming design and R&D activities for the HCPB breeding blanket during the Concept Design phase (2021-2027).

The swelling behavior of titanium-modified austenitic stainless steel 15-15Ti was investigated by pre-implantation of He at room temperature followed by Ni irradiation at 580 °C to peak doses of 120, 240 and 400 dpa. Relatively smaller cavities were observed in the zone of helium implantation while large cavities appeared in the region near the damage peak. A correction formula of the dpa curve was proposed and applied for samples with large swelling. It is found that the steady-state swelling rate of 15-15Ti keeps at ~1% /dpa even to high doses. By comparing the swelling data of the helium-implanted and helium-free regions at same doses, 70 dpa and 122 dpa, the suppression of excessive helium on swelling can be deduced at such doses.

A CoCrFeNiNb0.65 eutectic high-entropy alloys (EHEAs) prepared by arc melting were irradiated with a 100 keV He+ ion beam. Swelling, helium bubbles and mechanical response induced by irradiation were evaluated. When the ion fluence reached 1.0×1018 ions/cm2, the irradiation-induced swelling occurred on the sample surface, and as the ion fluence increasing, the swelling became increasingly severe and the surface of Nb-rich phase appeared peeling and shedding. Meanwhile, along the boundaries of matrix and Nb-rich phase there was a neat line of helium bubbles. The size of these helium bubbles decreased with distance from the center of the helium bubble layer. This result indicated that the phase boundaries were favorable sites for the nucleation and gathering of helium bubbles. Nanoindentaion results indicated that hardening and softening induced by He+ ion irradiation occurred in various ion fluences. At ion fluence of 5.0×1017 ions/cm2, the CoCrFeNiNb0.65 EHEAs exhibited an obvious hardening behavior, which can be explained by dislocation-dominated hardening effect. When the ion fluence reached 1.0×1018 ions/cm2 and 2.0×1018 ions/cm2, the hardening effect decreased probably due to the helium bubble aggregation and growth, as well as helium bubbles induced noncompact structures. The results of this study provide insights into the effect of helium bubbles on mechanical evolution and pave the way for designing EHEAs suitable for the nuclear industry.

In this paper, a new design of a helium-assisted hybrid drone is proposed for flight time enhancement. As is widely known, most of the drones with a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) feature have a short operation time, limiting their capability to carry out sustainable operations for the given missions. Thus, with the clear goal of enhancing the flight time, this study aims to develop a hybrid drone system, where a helium balloon is used to provide a lifting force for this purpose. The proposed design for the hybrid drone has several benefits including easiness to manufacture and relatively small size when compared to other types of hybrid drones. Various analyses are conducted for the design of the hybrid drone system including the balloon shape and size, buoyant force, flight time, and connector design. Since stability and performance are one of the most important issues for the new design, the pole location analysis is conducted based on the control theory. This rigorous analysis provides that the proposed hybrid drone design is stable as well as robust against swinging motions. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed design and flight time enhancement, simulations were conducted and experimental results are also provided using the manufactured hybrid drone system. Through the real experiments, it is proved that the hybrid drone can increase the flight time more than 2.5 times while guaranteeing stable motions.

Helium is a strategic rare gas resource related to national security and the development of high-tech industries, the high-quality development of helium industry chains has a great significance to improve the security of helium resource. This paper through literature and market research, summarizes the progress of helium resource endowmen, exploration and development, supply and demand pattern, trade market and industrial technology, equipment through literature and market research in the world, analyses the development situation of global helium resources industry chains. This study proposes the development status and challenges of China's helium industry and the corresponding development path of helium industry based on the upstream, midstream, downstream and downstream indicators. Most of the countries in the world have not started helium exploration or remain in low exploration level, but the exploration practice shows that global helium resource potential is considerable; helium exploration and development subjects become diversified in recent years, which may change the global helium supply and demand pattern; The helium reservoir forming theory and exploration and development technology are underdeveloped, and the helium extraction equipment is continuously improved; The global helium production capacity, supply and demand，trade pattern market would be profoundly changing. For a long time, the United States has had an absolute say in the global helium trade system, the contradiction between supply and demand would persist for a long time and significant price fluctuations. China's helium development challenges and opportunities coexist considering the global helium industry chain existing pattern and the new trend of development. There is an urgent need to build an independent and controllable , stable and resilient helium industrial chain, and provide helium resources guarantee for the development of high-tech industries.

The use of the LMD technology as a manufacturing and repairing technique in industrial sectors like the die and mold and aerospace is increasing within the last decades. Research carried out in the field of LMD process situates argon as the most usual inert gas, followed by nitrogen. Some leading companies have started to use helium and argon as carrier and shielding gas, respectively. There is therefore a pressing need to know how the use of different gases may affect the LMD process due to there is a lack of knowledge with regard to gas mixtures. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the influence of a mixture of argon and helium on the LMD process by analyzing single tracks of deposited material. For this purpose, special attention is paid to the melt pool temperature, as well as to the characterization of the deposited clads. The increment of helium concentration in the gases of the LMD processes based on argon will have three effects. The first one is a slightly reduction of the height of the clads. Second, an increase of the temperature of the melt pool. Last, smaller wet angles are obtained for higher helium concentrations.

In the present work, the charged B1, B2 and B3 bastons with the condition of k(mm) = k >> k(dd) > k(dm) = k(lq) = 0 are explained as the good candidates of the dark matters. The proposed rest mass (26.12 eV/c²) of the B1 dark matter is indirectly confirmed from the supernova 1987A data. The missing neutrinos are newly explained by using the dark matters and lepton charge force. The neutrino excess anomaly of the MinibooNE data is explained by the B1 dark matter scattering within the Cherenkov detectors. And the rest masses of 1.4 TeV/c² and 42.7 GeV/c² are assigned to the Le particle and the B2 dark matter, respectively, from the cosmic ray observations. In the present work, the Q1 baryon decays are used to explain the anti-Helium cosmic ray events. Because of the graviton evaporation and photon confinement, the very small Coulomb’s constant (k(dd)) of 10^x-54k and gravitation constant (G_N(dd)) of 10^xG_N for the charged dark matters at the present time are proposed. The x value can have the positive, zero or negative value around zero. Therefore, F_c(mm) > F_g(dd) (?) F_g(mm) > F_g(dm) > F_c(dd) > F_c(dm) = F_c(lq) = 0 for the proton-like particle.

Passive plasma spectroscopy is a well-established non-intrusive diagnostic technique. Depending on the emitter and its environment which determine the dominant interactions and effects governing emission line shapes, passive spectroscopy allows the determination of electron densities, emitter and perturber temperatures as well as other quantities like abundances. However, using spectroscopy needs appropriate line shape codes retaining all the physical effects governing the emission line profiles. This requires for line shape code developers to continuously correct or improve them to increase their accuracy when applied for diagnostics. This is exactly the aim expected from code-code and code-data comparisons. In this context, the He I 492 nm emitted in a helium corona discharge at room temperature represents an ideal case since its profile results from several broadening mechanisms: Stark, Doppler, resonance and van der Waals. The importance of each broadening mechanism depends on the plasma parameters. Here the profiles of the He I 492 nm in a helium plasma computed by various codes are compared for a selected set of plasma parameters. In addition, preliminary results related to plasma parameter determination using experimental spectra from a helium corona discharge at low pressure 1- 2 bars, are presented.

Many spectroscopic diagnostics are routinely used as a technique to infer the plasma parameters from line emission spectra but their accuracy depends on the numerical model or code used for the fitting process. However, the validation of a line shape code requires some steps : comparison of the line shape code with other similar codes for some academic (simple) cases and then more complex ones, comparison of the fitting parameters obtained from the best fit of the experimental spectra with those obtained with other diagnostic techniques and/or comparison of the fitting parameters obtained by different codes to fit the same experimental data. Here we compare the profiles of the hydrogen Balmer β line in a helium plasma computed by six codes for a selected set of plasma parameters and we report on the plasma parameters inferred by each of them from the fitting to a number of experimental spectra measured in a helium corona discharge where the pressure was in the range 1- 5 bar.

Free volume is an extremely important intrinsic defect in polymers. Structurally, the free volume is the randomly distributed holes in the polymer molecular chain segments. From the perspective of molecular movement, it is also the space needed for the movement of molecular segments. In proton exchange membrane fuel cells, the free volume is also the space needed for the directional conduction of protons. Irradiation grafting sulfonated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is one of the methods to produce proton exchange membrane with good proton channel rate. Using the LYS-1 program, based on the linear absorption coefficient and backscatter coefficient models, the percentage of annihilated positrons in PVDF in the two-layer model and the three-layer model was studied, and comparing the two fitting results it is determined that the model closest to the positron annihilation percentage required by the PALS experiment is the two-layer model, which allows the percentage of positrons that are annihilated in PVDF films with a thickness of 100 μm to reach 46% using the high energy positron source ⁴⁴Ti without using the positron moderator. Using positron annihilation lifetime spectrum (PALS) analysis methods, based on Eldrup's classical model of free volume, the influence of absorbed doses of α particles on the free volume and crystallinity of PVDF was investigated, respectively. Based on the two test results the model of cross-linking and degradation of polyvinylidene fluoride irradiated by α particles was determined. Afterwards, X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods was used to study the change of PVDF crystal area before and after irradiation. The XRD results are consistent with the results measured by PALS.

We discuss three key points: defining mathematically the notions of phase, symmetry breaking, topological defects and their stability in a formal language of homotopy theory and fiber bundle formalism; postulating and proving two theorems for successive symmetry breaking scenarios in condensed matter physics and cosmology, and demonstrating application of theorems to superfluid Helium 3 and Kibble-Lazarides-Shafi (KLS) walls, supporting and mathematically justifying the results of [Volovik, 2020].

We investigated fault gases (helium, radon, CO₂) in two seismically active Cenozoic sedimentary environments: a) Meinweg (in 2015) at a tectonically quiet horst structure in the Lower Rhine Embayment and b) Bodanrück (in 2012; Lake of Constance) at the Molasse Basin and part of the Freiburg–Bonndorf–Bodensee Fault Zone (FBBFZ). Both study areas were selected because recent “GeoBio-Interactions” findings showed, that red wood ants (RWA) are biological indicators of otherwise undetected degassing systems. A total of 817 soil gas samples was analyzed. Currently, Meinweg can be considered “no ants land” due to the very low background-level geogas concentrations. Thus, anomalies (Rn-CO₂) weakly trending in NE-SW extension direction emerged. This could probably indicate the onset of (re)activation of the NE-SW trending (Variscan) structures or the development of new fractures as an aftershock process of the 1992 Roermond earthquake that occurred about 15 km to the west. Results at Bodanrück (3 RWA clusters and two RWA-free corridors) revealed degassing patterns in NW-SE and NNE-SSW directions in the clusters corresponding to re-activated and recent strike-slip fault systems. No gas anomalies were found in RWA-free corridors. The RWA nest distribution was shown to be a valuable tool for identifying areas of even actively degassing spotty anomalies caused by macro- and microscale brittle deformation masked by sediment cover.