Wetting of He on rough cesium substrates

We discuss the behaviour of ⁴He meniscus on various disordered Cs substrates. We have first studied the dynamics of the contact line on Cs substrates evaporated at low temperature. The activated motion of the line is consistent with a substrate disorder of mesoscopic length scale. We have performed further studies of the contact line behaviour on substrates with roughness of macroscopic length scale. Close to the wetting transition, we find that a film invades the substrate leading to marked changes in the value of the contact angle.     

Adsorption of He on He crystal surfaces

We have compared the surface properties of crystals respectively grown from normal ⁴He containing 130 ppb of ³He and from ultrapure ⁴He (0.4 ppb). Below 0.4 K, ³He impurities are found to decrease both the surface tension and the step energy. Our results are consistent with the existence of two-dimensional bound states for ³He atoms at the solid-liquid interface. Quantitative agreement with the data is found with a binding energy _s ≈ 4.3 K and a ³He density saturating around 0.4 monolayer. The presence of steps is found to increase the binding energy by about 10 mK.     

Experimental evidence against zero temperature spin-wave damping in He

We have discovered unexpected features in the NMR signal of the ³He– ⁴He mixture inside the mixing chamber of a ⁴He circulating dilution refrigerator. The dilution process not only cools the liquid in the mixing chamber to 12–15 mK but also enhances the nuclear spin polarization of the concentrated as well as the dilute phase to nearly four times the equilibrium value in a magnetic field of 9.36 T. The NMR features are ascribed to standing spin waves trapped by falling dilute phase droplets. The temperature and polarization dependence of the quality factor of the spin-wave modes contradicts evidence from previous work that favored zero temperature spin-wave damping in moderately polarized degenerate Fermi liquids.     

Nucleon-nucleon final-state interactions in the reactions He(p, d)2p, He(p, t)2p and He(p, He)pn

The energy spectra of deuterons, tritons and ³He particles from the reactions ³He(p, d)2p, ⁴He(p, t)2p and ⁴He(p, ³He)pn have been measured at angles between 6° and 60° lab. The ³He(p, d)2p reaction was studied at both 30.5 and 49.5 MeV incident proton energies, while the other two reactions were studied at 49.5 MeV only. The energy spectra are compared with calculations based on the Watson-Migdal model of final-state interactions.     

Medium effects in coherent pion photo- and electroproduction on He and C

Coherent π⁰ photo- and electroproduction on ⁴He and ¹²C nuclei is investigated in the framework of a distorted wave impulse approximation in momentum space. The elementary process is described by the recently developed unitary isobar model. Medium effects are considered by introducing a phenomenological Δ self-energy. Recent experimental data for ⁴He and ¹²C can be well described over a wide range of energies and emission angles by the assumption that the Δ–nuclear interaction saturates.     

Optical interferometry in phase separated He---He mixture films

We report on interferometric studies of ³He---⁴He liquid mixtures. Anomalous wetting phenomena were observed in phase separated mixture films: the upper ³He-rich phase did not wet the lower ⁴He-rich phase under a small continuous feed of ⁴He atoms to the vapor phase. Instead, under this dynamic situation, floating pools of the ³He-rich phase were stabilized with a contact angle on the order of 10 mrad. In equilibrium, the concentrated ³He-rich phase was found to nucleate uniformly on the free surface, consistent with Antonow's rule.     

Adsorption and superfluid onset of He films on intermediate strength substrates

On strong binding substrates, such as graphite or mylar that are wetted by ⁴He at all temperatures, an adsorbed ⁴He film consists of 2 atomic layers of “inert” helium covered by a liquid layer that becomes superfluid via a Kosterlitz–Thouless (KT) transition. On weak substrates, for example cesium, superfluid onset above the wetting temperature also conforms to the KT picture. In contrast, superfluid onset on intermediate strength substrates, specifically heavier alkali metals and monolyer films of cesium on gold, deviates strongly from KT behavior. Here we describe superfluid onset of ⁴He on intermediate strength substrates and discuss the contributions of weak bindings and disorder to the non-KT behavior.     

Pionic K X-rays in liquid He

Energies and lorentzian widths of pionic K X-ray transitions have been measured in liquid ³He with improved accuracy. The strong interaction on the π³He 1s level is found to be attractive and to produce an increase in the K transition energies of 34 ± 4 eV; the measured lorentzian width is 36 ±7 eV. Measured values are also presented for K X-ray energies in liquid π⁴He and μ⁴He, the lorentzian width of the 1s level in π⁴He, and relative intensities of K X-ray transitions in π³He, π⁴He and μ⁴He. The measurements are compared with those of others and with recent theoretical calculations.     

A study of the Ti(He, t) and Ni(He, t) reactions to isobaric analogue states

The (³He, t) reaction populating 0⁺ and 2⁺ states in ^{58, 60}Cu and ^{46, 48}V which are isobaric analogue states (IAS) of the 0⁺ ground states and 2⁺ first excited states in ^{58, 60}Ni and ^{46, 48}Ti have been studied at an incident ³He energy of 24.6 MeV. Triton spectra were measured for the targets ^46,48Ti, ^natNi and ⁵⁸Ni and angular distributions for the 0⁺ and 2⁺ IAS of ^{46, 48}Ti and ^{58, 60}Ni determined. The data were obtained using a magnetic spectrometer and position-sensitive detectors. The results have been analysed using DWBA theory. The 0⁺ → 0⁺ transitions to analogue states are described quite well using a microscopic form factor derived from a nucleon-nucleon interaction. However, with a Gaussian form, the m.s. radius of this interaction is only limited to the region 0–9 fm². Comparisons with data at other incident energies indicate that the strength of the effective interaction is strongly energy dependent. The Coulomb energies and (³He, t) angular distributions of the states assigned as the 2⁺ analogues in ⁴⁸V and ^58,60Cu are not described well by the models investigated. The ⁴⁶V 2⁺ IAS angular distribution is reproduced by a microscopic calculation, however. The ratios of the 0⁺ → 2⁺ IAS to the 0⁺ → 0⁺ IAS transitions are used to deduce a quadrupole deformation for the valence neutrons. The difference in the quadrupole deformations of the matter and proton distributions, as determined by other means, is found to be correlated with those of the valence neutrons. Several transitions to non-analogue states are also investigated.     

Critical Casimir effect in dilute He–He mixture films

Recently, we have found that ⁴He films thin near the lambda point. Based on our measurements, the thinning appears to be caused by the confinement of superfluid order parameter fluctuations in the films. The phenomenon of the thinning is believed to be analogous to the Casimir effect in electromagnetism where the confinement of electromagnetic fluctuations causes the vacuum layer that separates two metal plates to thin. In this paper, we report the result of an experiment extending our previous study to ³He–⁴He mixture films. Thinning is found near the new lambda points and the characteristics of the thinning are similar to that found in pure ⁴He films.     

He particle emission in fast neutron induced reactions

Cross sections for some (n, ³He + dp + n2p) and (n, + 2n2p + n³He + pt + dd + dnp) reactions induced by fast neutrons produced via breakup of 53 MeV deuterons on a Be target (E_n = 4–50 MeV; I_max at 22.5 MeV; FWHM = 15.8 MeV) were measured for isotopes of the elements I, La, Nd, Tb, Ho, Yb, W and Au by the activation technique using high-resolution γ-ray spectroscopy, wherever necessary chemical separation, and in several cases enriched isotopes as targets. Furthermore, ³He/ emission cross-section ratios were measured for Co, Ag, In, Cs, La, Ta, Au and Bi using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The cross sections decrease as a function of increasing (N−Z)/A of the target nucleus. For target elements with Z 44, the ³He/ emission cross-section ratio increases with increasing Z; for elements with Z > 44, however, the trend is reversed. Hauser-Feshbach calculations suggest that the ³He/ emission cross-section ratios are not explainable by the statistical model.     

Measurements of interaction cross sections and radii of He isotopes

Secondary beams of ³He, ⁴He, ⁶He, and ⁸He were produced through the projectile fragmentation of an 800 MeV/nucleon ¹¹B primary beam. Interaction cross sections (σ_I) of all He isotopes of 790 MeV/nucleon on Be, C, and Al targets were measured by a transmission-type experiment. The interaction nuclear radii of He isotopes R_I(He) = (σ_I/π)^1/2 − R _I(T) where R_I(T) is the radius of the target nucleus, have been deduced to be R_I(³He) = 1.59 ± 0.06 fm, R_I(⁴He) = 1.40 ± 0.05 fm, R_I(⁶He) = 2.21 ± 0.06 fm, and R_I(⁸He) = 2.52 ± 0.06 fm.     

Electron screening effect in the reactions He(d, p)He and d(He, p)He

The cross section of the reactions ³He(d, p)⁴He and d(³He, p)⁴He has been measured at the center-of-mass energies E=5 to 60 keV and 10 to 40 keV, respectively. The experiments were performed to determine the magnitude of the electron screening effect leading to the respective electron-screening potential energy U_e=219±7 and 109±9 eV, which are both significantly higher than the respective values from atomic physics models, U_e=120 and 65 eV.     

X-ray scattering studies of liquid surfaces

X-ray reflectivity experiments on the structure of the liquid-vapor interface that were recently carried out by our group will be described. Systems that were studied include thin wetting layers adsorbed onto a solid substrate, the interfacial electron density profile of superfluid ⁴He, and preliminary measurements of the roughness of the surface of liquid gallium. The fundamental theoretical background to these experiments will be reviewed.     

Inelastic electron scattering from He

The spectra of electrons scattered inelastically from ⁴He have been measured at incident energies from 150 MeV to 400 MeV for scattering angles from 38° to 90°. Through the use of a liquid ⁴He target, a high momentum resolution (≈0.25%) was obtained, and the 20 MeV 0⁺ state of the -particle was observed for the first time in electron scattering. The excitation energy and the total width of this state were determined and are in good agreement with the results from other experimental methods. It was found that the total disintegration cross section appears be smaller than 2(σ_p+σ_n) by more than an order of magnitude at the lowest q²(≈ 0.33 fm⁻²). In earlier work the assumption of a total cross section of 2(σ_p+σ_n) was found to be quite accurate for higher q². As a new result, the partial radiative width for the 0⁺ state is determined to be Γ_rad = 1.1±0.3 meV.     

Binding and pauli principle corrections in subthreshold pion-nucleus scattering

In this investigation I develop a three-body model for the single scattering optical potential in which the nucleon binding and the Pauli principle are accounted for. A unitarity pole approximation is used for the nucleon-core interaction. Calculations are presented for the π−⁴He elastic scattering cross sections at energies below the inelastic threshold and for the real part of the π−⁴He scattering length by solving the three-body equations. Off-shell kinematics and the Pauli principle are carefully taken into account.

The binding correction and the Pauli principle correction each have an important effect on the differential cross sections and the scattering length. However, large cancellations occur between these two effects. I find an increase in the π−⁴He scattering length by 100%; an increase in the cross sections by 20–30% and shift of the minimum in π−⁴He scattering to forward angles by 10°.     

Elastic and charge exchange scattering of pions from He

Elastic and charge exchange scattering of pions from ³He is studied using an optical potential in the momentum representation, which includes the second-order effect as well as the nucleon binding correction. These corrections are found to be appreciable but still not enough to resolve the discrepancy between theoretical calculations and recent experimental data on the reaction ³He(π⁻, π⁰)³H.     

Polarization of neutrons from the reaction H(d, n)He

The angular dependence of the polarization of neutrons from the reaction ³H(d, n)⁴He was measured at deuteron energies of 3.35, 4.35 and 5.35 MeV for reaction angles up to 165° lab. Polarization values were derived from the left-right asymmetry in n- scattering.     

Fluctuation effects in spin diffusion measurements in liquid He

We have measured spin diffusion coefficients of liquid ³He at a frequency of 920 kHz by pulsed NMR. By analyzing our data in the framework of the Leggett–Rice theory we got a spin diffusion coefficient and a Leggett–Rice parameter =λωτ simultaneously at each temperature. On approaching the superfluid transition the spin diffusion coefficients showed a deviation from predictions of the Fermi liquid theory. The deviation at low pressure was larger than that at high pressure. This anomaly may be due to the effects of fluctuations of superfluidity which were recently observed in the viscosity measurement of liquid ³He.     

Pion-transfer (n, d) and (d, He) reactions leading to deeply bound pionic atoms

Theoretical studies are given on the (n, d) and (d, ³He) reactions leading to deeply bound pionic atoms in heavy nuclei of configuration [(nl)_π·j_n⁻¹]J. The cross sections for various pionic and neutron-hole configurations in the case of a ²⁰⁸Pb target are calculated at incident energies 300–1000 MeV/u by using the effective number approach and the eikonal approximation for distortion. The effective number with a pion in the 1s or 2p state and a neutron hole in the orbit peaks around the same incident energy (T_n = 600 MeV) as the elementary cross section n+n→d+π⁻, where the momentum transfer matches the angular-momentum transfer of L = 5–7. The DWIA cross section for (n,d) producing a pion in the 1s or 2p orbit at T_n = 600 MeV is found to be around 42 or 75 μb/sr, respectively. At T_n = 350 MeV, where the momentum transfer is small, quasi-substitutional states of configurations and are preferentially populated with (n, d) cross sections of 95 and 190 μb/sr, respectively. The (d, ³He) cross sections are estimated to be an order of magnitude smaller than the (n, d) cross sections. Thus, the (n, d) and (d, ³He) reactions are found to be suited for the production of deeply bound pionic atoms.