Does the Kibble mechanism operate in liquid He-4?

Hendry, P. C. and Lawson, N. S. and McClintock, Peter V. E. (2000) Does the Kibble mechanism operate in liquid He-4? Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 119 (3/4). pp. 249-256. ISSN 0022-2291

[thumbnail of chernPostPrint]
Preview
PDF (chernPostPrint)
chernPostPrint.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (200kB)

Abstract

A rapid passage of He-4 through the lambda (superfluid) transition is expected (W.H. Zurek, Nature 317, 505; 1985) to result in the production of topological defects (quantized vortices) through the Kibble mechanism, the same process that is believed to have produced cosmic strings at the GUT phase transition of the early universe. But recent experiments (Dodd et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3703; 1998) show that the density of vortices created, if any, seems to be smaller than predicted by a factor of at least 100. Possible ways of improving the sensitivity of the exoperiment are discussed.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Low Temperature Physics
Additional Information:
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1004688930111
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2500
Subjects:
?? materials science(all)atomic and molecular physics, and opticscondensed matter physicsqc physics ??
ID Code:
31898
Deposited On:
08 Mar 2010 10:04
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
18 Dec 2023 01:07