Low-temperature helium in bulk and in restricted geometries

Experiments with helium in thin films and small pores show that the bulk properties are greatly modified. With ⁴He, the onset of superfluidity is depressed and the specific heat anomaly is rounded and also depressed to lower temperatures. With ³He new features are found such as surface magnetism and free path effects. Bulk superfluid ⁴He is shown to have a sharp transition to turbulence, and bulk ³He the characteristics of a Fermi fluid.     

Microscopic Superconductivity and Room Temperature Electronics of High-Tc Cuprates

This paper points out that the Landau criterion for macroscopic superfluidity of He II is only a criterion for microscopic superfluidity of ⁴He, extends the Landau criterion to microscopic superconductivity in fermions (electron and hole) system and system with Cooper pairs without long-range phase coherence. This paper gives another three non-superconductive systems that are of microscopic superconductivity. This paper demonstrates that one application of microscopic superconductivity is to establish room temperature electronics of the high-T_c cuprates.     

Nonwetting of He and dilute He–He mixtures on Cs

For pure ⁴He on Cs a nonwet phase exists below ≈2 K but for dilute ³He–⁴He mixtures the wetting is reentrant. Measurements of the contact angle with dilute mixtures of liquid helium on Cs can be explained in detail in terms of ³He states together with ripplons at the Cs–He mixture interface, but it is impossible to account for the lower wetting temperatures or contact angles with only ³He states or ripplons. We discuss the influence of surface roughness of the Cs on the contribution of interface excitations to the free energy and suggest that the variety of contact angles found with different samples of Cs is due mainly to their degree of roughness.     

一种可用于极化~3He实验的新型磁场系统

原子核自旋极化的~3He气体已被深入研究并广泛用于各种科学实验.在过去的极化~3He实验中,为了减小磁场梯度对纵向弛豫时间的影响,通常会建造大尺寸的亥姆霍兹线圈来提供所需均匀度的主磁场环境.本文通过计算得到了新的六正方形线圈系统,可以为极化~3He实验提供小型高均匀性的磁场装置.其中线圈系√统内部超过30%的区域磁场梯度满足(|▽B_x|~2+|▽B_y|~2)/B_0 10~(-4)cm~(-1),这一均匀区域比例超过了现在所有用于极化~3He实验的线圈装置.对于其他需要大均匀区域磁场环境的研究实验,新的六线圈系统也具有很好的应用价值.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

He superfluidity in the presence of aerogel

Aerogels introduce disorder into the p-wave-paired superfluid ³He and suppress T_c. Quantifiable (by small angle X-ray scattering) differences in the long-range structure of two identical density aerogels are primarily responsible for their different transition temperatures. We also demonstrate that alteration of the short-range correlations by the addition of ⁴He does not strongly affect T_c. Acoustic measurements of the fast and slow modes of ³He in aerogel are described. These can be used to explore the superfluid component. We also outline future prospects.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The tensor force in nuclear saturation

One-term separable potentials in the ³S-³D channel are constructed which fit the following low-energy nucleon-nucleon data: the triplet effective range and scattering length, deuteron binding energy and quadrupole moment. They also yield ³D₁ phase shifts which have the correct sign. These potentials differ, however, in the amount of deuteron D-state probability, P_D, which they predict, where P_D ranges from 1 % to 9 %. Binding energy calculations of infinite nuclear matter and ⁴He are performed in order to test the effect of the tensor force on nuclear saturation properties. It is found that the larger the D-state probability, the smaller the energy per particle and saturation density. Detailed comparisons with local potentials in nuclear matter are also presented.

In nuclear matter no single-particle potential in intermediate states is used; in ⁴He, , where f is varied such that the absolute value of the diagram with a single potential insertion in a particle line is minimized. It is found in ⁴He that f= 0.75 and that this result is almost independent of both the potential employed and of ω. Furthermore, for 0 f 1.5, the total energy is independent of f.     

A microscopic three-cluster model in the hyperspherical formalism

The hyperspherical formalism is applied in the framework of the microscopic generator-coordinate method. Three-cluster systems are described with a single generator coordinate, the hyperradius. This model is a natural extension of previous microscopic theories, and can be applied to bound states and resonances in a range of nuclei exhibiting a cluster structure. As an illustrative example, the model is applied to ⁶He and ⁶Li. Density distributions and electric dipole transition strengths are calculated, including B(E2;0⁺→2⁺) in ⁶He. The results are consistent with a neutron halo structure for the ground state of ⁶He, and with a proton–neutron halo structure of its isobaric analog state in ⁶Li. No 1⁻ “soft dipole” resonance is found in ⁶He.     

Escape of charged particles at stopping annihilation of antiprotons in the heavy nuclei of nuclear photoemulsion

“Rare” annihilation channels for antiprotons stopping on heavy (Ag, Br) nuclei of photoemulsion, have been sought; 4872 stops of antiprotons on photoemulsion nuclei are analysed. Events of formation and decay of the hyperfragment _Λ⁴H, escape of ⁸He and ⁸Li nuclei, one-prong stars with the mean range 79.5±5.1 μm of secondary slow “b” particles are found among the annihilation stars at capture on nuclei (Ag, Br). The lower limits for the production probability of _Λ⁴H and ⁸He, ⁸Li nuclei per antiproton stopping in the nuclei (Ag, Br) are

W_Λ⁴H2×10⁻⁴ and W_⁸He,⁸Li=(1.3±0.6)×10⁻³.

The branching ratio for the production of one-prong stars with the secondary “b” particles is at least (1.3±0.6)×10⁻³. Possible mechanisms for a production of these events in annihilation processes are considered.     

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.     

p-wave superconductivity

Spin triplet, p-wave superfluidity was discovered in ³He a quarter of a century ago, and unconventional spin singlet d-wave superconductivity is now known to exist in the high-temperature superconducting cuprates. An established example of a spin triplet superconductor has still, however, been lacking. In the past few years, evidence suggesting the existence of triplet pairing has been reported in several correlated electron compounds, with perhaps the most consistent picture emerging in the layered perovskite oxide Sr₂RuO₄. A brief review is given of the recent developments, stressing the important role played by high-quality samples with long mean free paths.     

Thermal transport properties in a He---He mixture near and below the superfluid transition

Measurements of the thermal conductivity and of X/T are reported for a ³He---⁴He mixture with a ³He mole fraction X = 0.622. At T_λ, X/T passes through a sharp peak. A comparison with the theory of Khalatnikov is presented. The relaxation times τ(T) to reach steady state conditions show qualitatively the same behaviors as X/T.     

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°.     

Simultaneous measurements of the p+d→(A=3)+π reactions

A stack of annular detectors made of high-purity germanium was used to measure simultaneously pd → ³H π⁺ and pd → ³He π⁰ differential cross sections at beam momenta of 750 MeV/c, 800 MeV/c, and 850 MeV/c over a large angular range. The extracted total cross sections for the pd → ³He π⁰ reactions bridge a gap between near threshold data and those in the resonance region. The ratio of the cross sections for the two reaction channels taken at the same η=p^cm_π/m_π yields 2.11±0.08 indicating that a deviation from isospin symmetry is very small.