Vortex-loops and solid nucleation in superfluid $^4$He and $^3$He

dc.creatorGov, Nir
dc.date2001-08-20
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:42:28Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:42:28Z
dc.descriptionWe propose a new model for the nature of the nucleation of solid from the superfluid phases of $^4$He and $^3$He. Unique to the superfluid phases the solid nucleation involves an extremely fast solidification front. This results in a local release of pressure and a velocity field in the superfluid. The superfluid velocity in turn facilitates the nucleation of vortex-loops. The kinetic energy gain of this process balances the surface tension, as the solid surface is quickly covered by many vortex-loops ("hairy snow-ball"). We show that this scenario gives good agreement with experiments on heterogeneous nucleation, which differ with the classical theory of homogeneous nucleation by 8 orders of magnitude. We propose several experiments that could show the involvement of vortices with solid nucleation.
dc.description7 pages, 7 figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0108318
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0108318
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/18154
dc.subjectCondensed Matter
dc.titleVortex-loops and solid nucleation in superfluid $^4$He and $^3$He
dc.typetext

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