Spatially Extended Avalanches in a Hysteretic Capillary Condensation System: Superfluid {sup {bold 4}}He in Nuclepore

Journal Article · Fri Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1996 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.4222· OSTI ID:397650

Lilly, M P; Wootters, A H; Hallock, R B ^[1]

---

1. Laboratory for Low Temperature Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 (United States)

Capacitive studies of hysteretic capillary condensation of superfluid {sup 4}He in Nuclepore have shown that the initial draining of the pores occurs over a small range of the chemical potential with avalanches present as groups of pores drain. In the work reported here, the avalanches in this system are shown to be nonlocal events which involve pores distributed at low density across the entire sample. The nonlocal avalanche behavior is shown to be enabled by the presence of a superfluid film connection among the pores. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• OSTI ID: 397650
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 77, Issue 20; Other Information: PBD: Nov 1996
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
HELIUM 4
SUPERFLUIDITY
POROUS MATERIALS
CAPILLARY FLOW
HYSTERESIS
MEMBRANES
ADSORPTION