Toward the realization of a primary low-pressure standard using a superconducting microwave resonator.

We describe a primary gas pressure standard based on the measurement of the refractive index of helium gas using a microwave resonant cavity in the range between 500 Pa and 20 kPa. To operate in this range, the sensitivity of the microwave refractive gas manometer (MRGM) to low-pressure variations is substantially enhanced by a niobium coating of the resonator surface, which becomes superconducting at temperatures below 9 K, allowing one to achieve a frequency resolution of about 0.3 Hz at 5.2 GHz, corresponding to a pressure resolution below 3 mPa at 20 Pa. The determination of helium pressure requires precise thermometry but is favored by the remarkable accuracy achieved by ab initio calculations of the thermodynamic and electromagnetic properties of the gas. The overall standard uncertainty of the MRGM is estimated to be of the order of 0.04%, corresponding to 0.2 Pa at 500 and 8.1 Pa at 20 kPa, with major contributions from thermometry and the repeatability of microwave frequency measurements. A direct comparison of the pressures realized by the MRGM with the reference provided by a traceable quartz transducer shows relative pressure differences between 0.025% at 20 kPa and -1.4% at 500 Pa.

The Boltzmann project.

The International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), at its meeting in October 2017, followed the recommendation of the Consultative Committee for Units (CCU) on the redefinition of the kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole. For the redefinition of the kelvin, the Boltzmann constant will be fixed with the numerical value 1.380 649 × 10-23 J K-1. The relative standard uncertainty to be transferred to the thermodynamic temperature value of the triple point of water will be 3.7 × 10-7, corresponding to an uncertainty in temperature of 0.10 mK, sufficiently low for all practical purposes. With the redefinition of the kelvin, the broad research activities of the temperature community on the determination of the Boltzmann constant have been very successfully completed. In the following, a review of the determinations of the Boltzmann constant k, important for the new definition of the kelvin and performed in the last decade, is given.

Acoustics and precondensation phenomena in gas-vapor saturated mixtures.

Starting from fundamental hydrodynamics and thermodynamics equations for thermoviscous fluids, a new modeling procedure, which is suitable to describe acoustic propagation in gas mixtures, is presented. The model revises the boundary conditions which are appropriate to describe the condensation-evaporation processes taking place on a solid wall when one component of the mixture approaches saturation conditions. The general analytical solutions of these basic equations now give a unified description of acoustic propagation in an infinite, semi-infinite, or finite medium, throughout and beyond the boundary layers. The solutions account for the coupling between acoustic propagation and heat and concentration diffusion processes, including precondensation on the walls. The validity of the model and its predictive capability have been tested by a comparison with the description available in the literature of two particular systems (precondensation of propane and acoustic attenuation in a duct filled with an air-water vapor saturated mixture). The results of this comparison are discussed to clarify the relevance of the various physical phenomena that are involved in these processes. The model proposed here might be useful to develop methods for the acoustic determination of the thermodynamic and transport properties of gas mixtures as well as for practical applications involving gas and gas-vapor mixtures like thermoacoustics and acoustics in wet granular or porous media.

Polarizability of helium and gas metrology.

Using a quasispherical, microwave cavity resonator, we measured the refractive index of helium to deduce its molar polarizability A(epsilon) in the limit of zero density. We obtained (A(epsilon,meas) - A(epsilon,theory))/A(epsilon) = (-1.8 +/- 9.1) x 10(-6), where the standard uncertainty (9.1 ppm) is a factor of 3.3 smaller than that of the best previous measurement. If the theoretical value of A(epsilon) is accepted, these data determine a value for the Boltzmann constant that is only 1.8 +/- 9.1 ppm larger than the accepted value. Our techniques will enable a helium-based pressure standard and measurements of thermodynamic temperatures.