DENSITY DISTRIBUTIONS IN A VERTICAL TUBE CONTAINING XENON NEAR THE CRITICAL TEMPERATURE AS MEASURED BY A RADIOACTIVE TRACER TECHNIQUE

Abstract

The variation of density with height has been determined for xenon confined in a long vertical bomb under near critical conditions. The densities were deduced by means of radioactive tracer techniques. Radioactive Xe¹²⁷ was added to ordinary xenon and counting rates (assumed proportional to local densities) were measured at various positions along the bomb. The observed density distributions can be entirely explained by the influence of gravity on the system; a comparison of the observed density distribution with that calculated using the measured PV isotherms for xenon shows satisfactory agreement.