Superconducting Radiofrequency Cavity Advance for Accelerators and Other Purposes


The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility marked a step forward in the field of advanced particle accelerator technology with the successful test of the first U.S.-built superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) niobium cavity to meet the exacting specifications of the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC).

Superconducting radiofrequency accelerator cavities are crucial components of particle accelerators or colliders, harnessing the energy that the collider pumps into a beam of particles. If it were built, the ILC would require about 16,000 niobium cavities, and vendors worldwide are vying to produce test cavities that meet the ILC’s stringent performance goals.

The cavity was cooled to operating temperature (2 Kelvin or negative 456 degrees Fahrenheit) and its ability to harness radiofrequency energy was gauged. The test revealed that the cavity’s accelerating gradient, its ability to impart energy to particles, was 41 megavolts per meter, far exceeding the GDE specification of 35 MV/m.

Controversial EMDrive
These kinds of superconducting cavities would be useful for enabling the Emdrive if the the EMdrive is feasible.

China is building prototype emdrive systems

Emdrive Presentation at Space 08 conference

Key points from the slideshow: The chinese are making a S-band prototype engine. There is an version 1.5 superconducting system with Q 6*10**6 which would have 100 times more thrust than the version 1 system. This would be 32 Newtons of static thrust. One thousand times less than the version 2 superconducting system that would equal the best current superconducting Q of 5*10**9. If these systems are working then the sizes of the forces involved should be unambiguous. Not tiny millinewton forces which could be from mistakes or other causes but larger forces.