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Quantized Vortices in Superfluid Helium‐4

FEB 01, 1987
Singular whirlpools give rise to such diverse phenomena as superfluid turbulence, two‐dimensional phase transitions and quantum nucleation.
William I. Glaberson
Klaus W. Schwarz

When liquid helium‐4 is cooled to 2.17 K it changes from an ordinary fluid to a superfluid somewhat similar in nature to superfluid helium‐3 and to the electron fluid in superconductors. Extensive investigation over the last five decades has given us a highly refined phenomenological description of how superfluid He4 behaves, even though the underlying quantum theory is only partially understood. Much of the current research on superfluid He4 is part of a continuing effort to work out the implications of this phenomenological description, in the same way as classical fluid dynamicists are still working out the implications of the Navier‐Stokes equations.

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More about the Authors

William I. Glaberson. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Klaus W. Schwarz. IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 40, Number 2

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