It is one of the most ubiquitous elements in the universe, second only to hydrogen. Balloons filled with it are almost everywhere and can be purchased for only a few dollars. One can easily be forgiven for assuming that helium, which plays a currently irreplaceable role in the superconducting magnets used in MRI and particle accelerators, is not only relatively easily obtained but in inexhausti...

Equilibrium properties of hydrogen-helium mixtures under thermodynamic conditions found in the interior of giant gas planets are studied by means of density functional theory molecular dynamics simulations. Special emphasis is placed on the molecular-to-atomic transition in the fluid phase of hydrogen in the presence of helium. Helium has a substantial influence on the stability of hydrogen mol...

Context. Some globular clusters host multiple stellar populations with different chemical abundance patterns. This is particularly true for ω Centauri, which shows clear evidence of a helium-enriched sub-population characterized by a helium abundance as high as Y = 0.4 Aims. We present a whole and consistent set of evolutionary tracks from the ZAMS to the white dwarf stage appropriate for the s...

We investigate the gravonuclear instabilities reported by Bono et al. (1997a,b) during the onset of helium-shell burning at the end of the horizontal-branch (HB) phase. These instabilities are characterized by relaxation oscillations within the helium shell which lead to loops in the evolutionary tracks. We find the occurrence of these instabilities depends critically on how the breathing pulse...

Calculational results are presented for the fine-structure splitting of the 2P state of helium and helium-like ions with the nuclear charge Z up to 10. Theoretical predictions are in agreement with the latest experimental results for the helium fine-structure intervals as well as with the most of the experimental data available for light helium-like ions. Comparing the theoretical value of the ...

The replacement of the 30-year-old Philips cryogenerator with a modern LINDE-1630 helium refrigerator is an important component of TRIUMF’s ongoing 500 MeV cyclotron refurbishing program. Two 10.7 m long cryopanels are cooled with liquid helium rather than with 17 K helium gas, as was the case with the cryogenerator. This has increased the pumping speed and, respectively, improved the vacuum in...

Preconditioning is abolished in the prediabetic Zucker obese rat. It has been shown that prevention of mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening is involved in preconditioning by the noble gas helium. Here, we investigated: 1) whether helium induces pre- and postconditioning in Zucker rats and 2) whether possible regulators of the mPTP [i.e., mitochondrial respiration or the ext...

We study the possibility of the helium decoupling in the stellar wind of σ Ori E. To obtain reliable wind parameters for this star we first calculate an NLTE wind model and derive wind mass-loss rate and terminal velocity. Using corresponding force multipliers we study the possibility of helium decoupling. We find that helium decoupling is not possible for realistic values of helium charge (cal...

Positively charged helium clusters, also called 'snowballs', have been investigated within normal liquid helium. Thermodynamic state equations for ionic helium clusters in liquid helium have been developed, allowing us to discern the 'hydrodynamic' radius for a wide range of hydrostatic pressures and temperatures. The mobilities derived from the cluster sizes using stokes law match experimental...

The observed abundance variations in globular cluster red giants indicate that these stars may be mixing helium from the hydrogen shell outward into the envelope, presumably as a result of internal rotation. We have investigated the implications of such helium mixing for both the red-giant-branch (RGB) and horizontal-branch (HB) phases by computing a number of noncanonical evolutionary sequence...