High-energy low-temperature physics: Production of phase transitions and topological defects by energetic particles in superfluid 3He

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Abstract

I review three sets of experiments conducted in the last decade, in which superfluid 3 He was irradiated with high-energy particles and the nucleation either of vorticity or of the A-B phase transition reported. I consider how far the known atomic physics constrains possible scenarios for such nucleation, and comment on two such scenarios which have appeared in the literature, namely the "baked-Alaska" and "cosmological" (Kibble-Zurek-Volovik) models. I point out that there is a fundamental difference between the problems of nucleation of vorticity on the one hand and the B phase on the other: and that as a result, it is by no means necessary that the same scenario should describe both phenomena. In an appendix I discuss possible sinks of energy in the calorimetric (Grenoble-Lancaster) experiment, with the conclusion that it is entirely consistent with the data to assume that no vorticity at all was produced in this experiment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)775-804
Number of pages30
JournalJournal of Low Temperature Physics
Volume126
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Materials Science(all)
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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