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.     

Electrons on superfluid He

Low-frequency transport properties of the Wigner solid on normal and superfluid ³He have been studied. It is known that the Wigner solid deforms the free surface of liquid He to form a dimple lattice. The low-frequency resistivity is successfully interpreted by the ballistic and specular scattering of ³He quasiparticles from the dimple lattice. The resistivity decreases abruptly below the superfluid transition temperature. For superfluid ³He-A, the l-texture, presumably perpendicularly oriented to the free surface, has an essential influence on the resistivity.     

The origin of nuclear magnetism in solid He films: determination of multi-spin exchange frequencies

Solid ³He films adsorbed on graphite display remarkable magnetic properties due to quantum exchange, reduced dimensionality and frustration. We discuss the relevance of the multiple spin exchange Hamiltonian to describe these systems. Our high precision NMR data and the results of heat capacity measurements performed in other laboratories allow us to unambiguously determine the most significant multi-spin exchange frequencies. This result gives a quantitative understanding of the thermodynamical properties of solid ³He films, explaining the evolution from a pure Heisenberg behavior at high areal densities to a novel spin liquid state at low coverages.     

Effect of He pre-plating on third sound in superfluid He

We recently reported observation of third sound resonances in superfluid films of pure ³He on a disk-shaped polished copper substrate. From the observed spectra of resonant modes, the third sound speed, the average superfluid density, and information on dissipation were obtained. The film thicknesses studied were larger than or comparable to the superfluid coherence length, which is near 100 nm. We describe preliminary results from efforts aimed at using third sound in thinner films on a substrate which has been coated with a few atomic layers of ⁴He.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Spectroscopy of molecules in helium droplets

The work reviewed in the talk explores the possibilities of using molecules immersed in liquid helium as probes to study superfluidity on the microscopic level. For this purpose liquid ⁴He, ³He and mixed ⁴He/³He droplets consisting of 10³–10⁵ atoms have been doped with single molecules or a small defined number of molecules which form clusters in the droplet interior. The dopants were investigated with high-resolution optical spectroscopy. The electronic and rovibrational spectra show unusually sharp spectral lines and unexpected features such as a distinct gap between the zero phonon line and the phonon wing as well as the free rotations of single molecules. Both are not observed in colder nonsuperfluid ³He droplets and therefore are considered to be new microscopic manifestations of superfluidity. Spectroscopic studies of small p-H₂ and o-D₂ clusters surrounding a single chromophore molecule formed in the interior of the He droplets are also reported.     

Spin-wave reflection from an interface of two Fermi liquids

The boundary condition for the magnetization jump at an interface of two Fermi liquids and the spin current through the interface is rederived. With the use of the derived condition the coefficient of reflection of a spin wave from a boundary of two Fermi liquids for normal incidence is found and applied to the case of interface of phase separated liquid mixture of ³He in ⁴He. The effect of the phase separation boundary on the coherently precessing spin pattern is discussed.     

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.     

A path integral centroid molecular dynamics method for Bose and Fermi statistics

We propose a path integral centroid molecular dynamics (CMD) method extended to Bose and Fermi statistics. An extended method of path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) for such statistics is also developed as a technique of calculations of static properties. Bose PIMD and CMD simulations have been performed for bulk liquid ⁴He and ideal Bose gas, respectively. The remnant of λ transition is observed for bulk liquid ⁴He, while the effect of Bose statistics on the centroid dynamics spanning several nanoseconds is observed for ideal Bose gas.     

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.     

极化3He系统核磁共振FID信号的激光探测

极化率测量装置是极化³He系统的重要组成部分之一.本文介绍了一套在极化³He系统上搭建的激光探测自由感应衰减核磁共振（FID NMR）信号的实验装置,该装置有望为³He极化率的高精度实时测量提供新的途径.激光探测法的原理是法拉第旋光效应,该方法使用一束线偏振光探测极化³He磁矩绕主磁场进动的FID信号,实验结果表明相较于拾波线圈探测方法,激光探测方法的信噪比提高了106%,对³He的极化率测量更精确.该探测方法有望替代传统的拾波线圈,广泛地应用于³He极化系统的极化率测量或精密测量实验中.     

Decay Analysis of Ge Isotopes Formed in Reactions Induced by Tightly and Loosely Bound Projectiles

The dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM) is employed to investigate the decay of ^68,70Ge^* compound nuclei formed respectively via tightly (⁴He) and loosely (⁶He) bound projectiles, using ⁶⁴Zn target. The study is carried out over a wide energy range (E_c.m.~5 MeV to 16 MeV) by including the quadrupole deformations (β2i) and optimum orientations (θ_i^opt) of the decaying fragments. The fusion cross-sections, obtained by adding various evaporation channels show nice agreement with the experimental data for ⁴He+⁶⁴Zn reaction. The contribution from competing compound inelastic scattering channel is also analyzed particularly for ⁶⁸Ge^* nucleus at above barrier energies. On the other hand, the decrement in the fusion cross-sections of ⁷⁰Ge^* nuclear system is addressed by presuming that ⁶⁵Zn ER is formed via two different modes:(i) the αn evaporation of ⁷⁰Ge^* nucleus, and (ii) 1n-evaporation of ⁶⁶Zn^* nuclear system, formed via breakup and 2n-transfer channels due to halo structure of the ⁶He projectile. Besides this, the suppression in 2np evaporation cross-sections suggests the contribution of another breakup and transfer process of ⁶He i.e. ⁴He+⁶⁴Zn. The contribution of breakup+transfer channels for ⁶He+⁶⁴Zn reaction is duly addressed by applying relevant energy corrections due to the breakup of " ⁶He" projectile into 2n and ⁴He. In addition to this, the barrier lowering, angular momentum and energy dependence effects are also explored in view of the dynamics of chosen reactions.     

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.     

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°.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.