Helium three

FEB 01, 1976

Magnetic superfluid phases in the low‐millikelvin region, a Josephson “ringing” effect and fluid anisotropy are among the exotic properties of this surprising substance.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3023313

John C. Wheatley

The past two decades have seen great progress in our understanding of the properties of condensed helium 3. Research on ${He}^{3}$ in our lab (see figure 1 for its modern form) began in 1958. At that time the properties of the more abundant isotope, helium 4, were rather well known: A phase transition at about 2 K transforms it from a normal liquid to a superfluid, a liquid that under some conditions will flow without viscous drag. The explanation for this behavior is rooted in concepts from the condensation of an ideal Bose–Einstein gas. But ${He}^{3}$ obeys Fermi–Dirac statistics; would it show any likeness to a Fermi gas or liquid? Would it also exhibit a transition to superfluidity?

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More about the authors

John C. Wheatley, University of California, San Diego.