Self-overcoming of the boiling condition by pressure increment in a water target irradiated by proton beam

An experiment was conducted to examine and visualize the boiling phenomena inside a water target by irradiating it with a proton beam from MC-50 cyclotron. The boiling phenomena were recorded with a CMOS camera. While an increase of the fraction of the water vapor volume is generally considered to be normal when water is boiled by a proton beam, our experiment showed the opposite result. The volume expansion of the liquid water exceeded the compressibility of the initial air volume. A grid structure in front of the entrance window foil held the target volume constant. Therefore, the phenomena inside the target underwent an isochoric process, and the pressure inside the target was increased rapidly beyond the pressure at the boiling point. Consequently, there was no more bulk boiling in the Bragg-peak region in the target water. Our results show that the boiling of the water can be controlled by controlling the equilibrium pressure of the water target.