The effect of a magnetic field on the heat conductivity of oxygen and oxygen - argon gas mixtures

The effects of a magnetic field on the heat conductivity of the paramagnetic O2 and O2-Ar gas mixtures of different compositions have been studied by using the hot-wire method. The magnetic field has been applied perpendicular to the temperature gradient so that the fractional change (Δλ⊥λ) of the longitudinal coefficient of thermal conductivity has been measured. For pure O2, after applying proper corrections the experimental data obtained by using the hot-wire method agreed well with those obtained by using other methods. The experimental (Δλ⊥λ) data have been interpreted by applying the theory of Knaap and Beenakker and treating O2 as a mixture of ms = 0 and ms = ± 1 states.