Nucleation of bubbles in liquid helium

Conference · Wed Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Journal of Low Temperature Physics; (United States)

OSTI ID:5402792

Maris, H J ^[1]; Balibar, S; Pettersen, M S ^[2]

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1. Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States)
2. Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Paris (France)

The authors give a brief survey of experiments that have been performed to study the nucleation of bubbles (cavitation) in liquid helium at negative pressures. There have been two principal motivations for research in this field. Because all impurities (except [sup 3]He) freeze out of the liquid at low temperatures, it is possible to prepare helium with a much higher purity than ordinary classical liquids. In any study of a nucleation process this is an important advantage because impurities introduce the complication of heterogeneous nucleation. The second reason for interest in helium is that at low enough temperatures nucleation is expected to be dominated by quantum tunnelling rather than thermal activation.

• OSTI ID: 5402792
• Report Number(s): CONF-9308208--; CNN: DMR-91-20982
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Journal of Low Temperature Physics; (United States) Journal Volume: 93:5-6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

665420* -- Superfluidity-- (1992-)
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BUBBLES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
HELIUM 4
HELIUM ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NUCLEATION
NUCLEI
STABLE ISOTOPES