Possible role of $^3He$ impurities in solid $^4He$

POSTER

Abstract

We use a quantum lattice gas model to describe the essential aspects of the motion $^4He$ atoms and of a $^3He$ impurity in solid $^4He$. We find that $^3He$ impurities promote $^4He$ atoms to interstitial sites and this can turn the bosonic quantum crystal into a metastable supersolid. It is suggested that $^3He$ impurity atoms, which produce the interstitial $^4He$ atoms, might have been reabsorbed by pure $^4He$ solid formed during the first stage of a multi-stage solid $^4He$ nucleation process. While we use the ``spin''-wave approximation and low dimensional lattices to illustrate some of the ideas, we argue that the conclusions drawn from these studies may be valid for the real system.

–

Authors

  • Efstratios Manousakis

    MARTECH \& Physics Department, FSU, Tallahassee, FL \& University of Athens, Greece, Department of Physics, Florida State University, USA, and Department of Physics, University of Athens, Greece, MARTECH, Dept. of Physics, Florida State University and University of Athens, Greece, Florida State University, MARTECH and Physics Department, FSU, Tallahassee, FL and University of Athens, Greece, Physics Department, Florida State University, USA, and Physics Department, University of Athens, Greece