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Title: Zero sound investigations of superfluid /sup 3/He

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6259170

The order parameter collective modes of the A and B phases of superfluid 3He have been investigated over a pressure range of 0-23 bar and in magnetic fields up to 160 mT. A cw acoustic impedance technique has been used to investigate the modes in the high attenuation limit, and a pulsed transmission technique has been used in the low attenuation limit. The coupling of the superfluid acoustic impedance with the transducer electrical impedance is discussed in detail. A new collective mode of the A phase has been observed. The temperature at which this new mode appears is frequency, pressure and magnetic field independent at 38.2 MHz and 63.8 MHz. The temperature dependence is well described by theoretical predictions for the super-flapping mode in the weak-coupling limit of the ABM energy gap. The high pressure, 89.3 MHz data deviate from this universal behavior and may indicate that Fermi liquid corrections should be incorporated into the theory. The B phase squashing mode J/sub z/ = 0 state is observed to shift to lower temperatures in the presence of a magnetic field. An additional field dependence of the output is interpreted as the evolution of the J/sub z/ = -1,-2 states but is inconsistent with theoretical predictions. Anomalies at the A-B transition (T/sub AB/) have been detected. The B phase has been investigated near the pair breaking edge and in the low pressure regime. The pair breaking attenuation peak has been completely resolved for P < 2 bar.

Research Organization:
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (USA)
OSTI ID:
6259170
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English