Experimental Evidence for a Temperature-Dependent Surface Shielding Effect Inside a Copper Tube.
Abstract
The temperature dependence of the ambient axial electric field inside a vertical copper tube has been investigated. A vertical metal tube subject to the gravitational field of the Earth is expected to have spatial variations in the electrostatic potential along its axis because of contract potential differences between adjacent crystals in the metal and because of the gravitationally-induced rearrangement of the metallic electrons and ions. The result of a previous measurement by Witteborn and Fairbank (WF) of the ambient axial electric field inside a copper tube at 4.2 degree K is roughly four orders of magnitude too small to be consistent with the predictions of the theory of Dessler et al, and the results of several room temperature measurements. Schiff, among others, pointed out that the WF result would be consistent with the other results if a shielding effect involving electrons on the inside surface of the tube were to exist at 4.2 degree K but not at room temperature. In this work the electron time-of-flight method of WF was used to measure the ambient axial electric field inside a copper tube at temperatures ranging from 4.2 degree K to 300 degrees K. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA044569
Entities
People
- James Marcus Lockhart
Organizations
- Stanford University