Louis Goldstein, a former group leader at the once-named Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, died in Los Alamos, New Mexico, on 26 August 1999. He had broken his hip on 4 July, and died from the complications that followed.Louis was born in Dombrad, Hungary, on 25 March 1904. Barred as a Jew from attending a Hungarian university, he moved to Paris in the early 1920s. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Paris in 1926 and a doctor of science degree in theoretical physics from the same university in 1932. His thesis was entitled “The Quantum Theory of Inelastic Collisions.” He remained in Paris until the spring of 1939, when he emigrated to the US. Five years later, he became a US citizen.Shortly after arriving in the US, he began teaching theoretical physics at City College in New York City. From 1944 to 1946, he worked with the wave propagation group at Columbia University. In 1946, he moved to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, where he served as a group leader in the lab’s theoretical division. His position was unique: He was the sole member of his group, and his assignment was to work on whatever subject he chose!Among Louis’s first, and most appreciated, contributions to postwar research at Los Alamos were to the work of the low-temperature physics group. Shortly after World War II ended, preliminary investigations of thermonuclear reactions began at the lab. Experimentally, this effort required tritium, which made available, for the first time, pure helium-3. Louis was aware of Fritz London’s 1938 suggestion that helium-4 behaves anomalously at 2.17 K because it was a Bose–Einstein fluid. Knowing that 3He obeys Fermi–Dirac statistics, Louis recognized that it would show no such behavior. Other theorists had suggested that 3He would be hard to liquefy because of its high zero-point energy, but Louis was undeterred. Even before any 3He arrived at Los Alamos, he organized a crash course of experiments on liquid helium. It was therefore a rewarding experience for Louis when two of us (Grilly and Keller) and Stephen Sydoriak liquefied this isotope on 13 October 1948. Eleven months later, the team reported that liquid 3He exhibited no anomalous behavior down to a temperature of 0.84 K.In his later years, Louis continued to write many journal articles that explored the statistical thermodynamics of condensed phases of the stable helium isotopes, including the magnetic properties of solid 3He. He retired in 1971, but continued to be involved with the lab for many more years. He made a deep impression on his younger colleagues through his commitment to physics and to the integrity the subject requires and fosters. Physics for Louis was not merely important, but personally encompassing. His memory is cherished by everyone he mentored and influenced. Louis Goldstein PPT|High resolution© 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Although applications to energy systems now provide the major motivation for research and development in low-temperature technology, the initial impetus for this work on a large scale at temperatures below 75 K arose from military and defence requirements. During and shortly after World War II, the evident need for cryogens in rocket and nuclear weapons research spawned, mainly in the US, several large cryogenic research organizations. Among the more prominent of these were, first, laboratories at the Ohio State University and at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) and, later, at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Boulder, Colorado. The resources of these three laboratories were allied to prepare and operate the cryogenic components for the ‘wet’ hydrogen bomb test in the South Pacific Islands in 1952 (the Boulder cryogenics laboratory was established primarily for this purpose). One result of this cooperation was the creation of a cryogenic industry that ultimately became capable of producing and handling the large amounds of liquid hydrogen, up to the order of 4 000 000 ℓ at a single location, required for the US space programme.

Progress in the development of dc superconducting cables suggests these systems will provide an attractive alternate among cable options where long lengths of high-capacity underground transmission lines are required. The general characteristics of dc superconducting cables as well as details of two specific designs, one coaxial and the other double monopolar, are discussed. The special advantages of these cables lie in the relative simplicity of construction, their extremely high operating efficiency, and their compactness when compared with other ac or dc high-capacity cables cooled by flowing fluids, either at ambient or cryogenic temperatures. These features are discussed in the context of economic, environmental, and power system considerations, including some of the possible trade-offs among conventional and superconducting ac and dc systems.

A general review and technology assessment of superconducting magnets for energy storage and superconducting cables for power transmission are presented. It is concluded that the technology is now available for applying superconductivity in the power industry. (TFD)

The response of the superfluid film velocityv to varying driving force is measured from 1 to 2.12 K using gravitational film flow between bulk reservoirs. Data on the reservoir level vs. time are analyzed and compared with four intrinsic dissipation models and can be best fit, to within 0.5%, by the formdv/dt∝−ν(T) exp [−v b (T)/v], where ν(T) andv b (T) are phenomenological parameters. Previous intrinsic dissipation measurements are critically reviewed. New indirect evidence for kinetic thinning of the film is found in 0.5% distortions in the thermally damped oscillations of the reservoir levels. Topics in potential flow damping are discussed.

The tenth progress report of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory dc Superconducting Power Transmission Line (SPTL) Development Project covers the period April 1 to June 30, 1975. A number of line configurations, including a high voltage dc SPTL design, are examined from a cryoengineering point of view. New calculations on the cryostabilization of the superconductors are presented. Measurements of the critical current on several new superconductors and on a 20- m, well-stabilized Nb$sub 3$Sn tape are reported. Acoustical emission is being evaluated as a new technique to predetermine damage to Nb$sub 3$Sn conductors during cable fabrication. (auth)

During the past two decades we have witnessed and participated in a phenomenal growth of the applications and requirements of large-scale cryotechnology. A necessary ingredient for this growth has been a concomitant increase in sophistication of the instrumentation techniques necessary for the surveillance and regulation of cryogenic systems. As we look to the future no crystal ball is needed to predict an increasingly larger involvement of cryotechnology affecting nearly all sectors of our society. As examples of this we mention the following.