The triple point of water serves to define the kelvin, the unit of thermodynamic temperature, in the International System of Units (SI). Furthermore, it is the most important fixed point of the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90). Any uncertainty in the realization of the triple point of water contributes directly to the measurement uncertainty over the wide temperature range from 13.8033 K to 1234.93 K.The Consultative Committee for Thermometry (CCT) decided at its 21st meeting in 2001 to carry out a comparison of water triple point cells and charged the BIPM with its organization.Water triple point cells from 20 national metrology institutes were carried to the BIPM and were compared with highest accuracy with two reference cells. The small day-to-day changes of the reference cells were determined by a least-squares technique. Prior to the measurements at the BIPM, the transfer cells were compared with the corresponding national references and therefore also allow comparison of the national references of the water triple point.This report presents the results of this comparison and gives detailed information about the measurements made at the BIPM and in the participating laboratories. It was found that the transfer cells show a standard deviation of 50 µK; the difference between the extremes is 160 µK. The same spread is observed between the national references.The most important result of this work is that a correlation between the isotopic composition of the cell water and the triple point temperature was observed. To reduce the spread between different realizations, it is therefore proposed that the definition of the kelvin should refer to water of a specified isotopic composition.The CCT recommended to the International Committee of Weights and Measures (CIPM) to clarify the definition of the kelvin in the SI brochure by explicitly referring to water with the isotopic composition of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW). The CIPM accepted this recommendation and the next edition of the SI brochure will include this specification.Main text. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/.The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCT, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA).

Short copper standing wave (SW) structures operating at X-band have been recently designed and manufactured at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) using the vacuum brazing technique. High power tests of the structures have been performed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. In this manuscript we report the results of the tests and the activity in progress to enhance the high gradient performance of the next generation of structures, particularly the technological characterization of high performance coatings obtained via molybdenum sputtering.

The "Centro Español de Metrología" is carrying out a project to improve the knowledge of the influence of impurities and isotopic composition on the temperature of the mercury triple point. High-purity mercury from the Almaden mine (stated purity of 99.9998%) was further purified by vacuum distillation. Three mercury fractions, the original mercury from Almaden and two distilled fractions, were characterized in terms of both impurities and isotopic composition and used to measure the mercury triple point. The original mercury sample contained silver at 560 ng · g −1 as the main impurity while the impurity levels were much lower (silver < 1 ng · g −1 ) in the two distilled fractions. The isotopic composition of the distilled fractions showed delta values, expressed as 1,000×( 198/202 Hg sample − 198/202 Hg reference )/ 198/202 Hg reference , of 1.37 ± 0.07 (1σ ) for the first distilled sample and −1.55 ± 0.03 (1σ ) for the second distilled sample with reference to the original Almaden mercury. For the measurement of the mercury triple point, an alcohol stirred bath was used that allowed two cells to be compared nearly simultaneously. It was observed that the presence of the silver impurities in the high-purity mercury modified slightly the mercury triple point while the effect of variations in the isotopic composition can be considered negligible.

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