I review the experimental and theoretical situation regarding two problems connected with the transition between the superfluid A and B phases of liquid 3He, namely (1) what is the mechanism of nucleation of the strongly hypercooled first order transition between the two phases, (2) what factors govern the expansion of the stable B phase once formed, i.e. what determines the mobility of the A-B interface? It is concluded that in both cases there are a number of intriguing questions which at present remain unanswered.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. J. Leggett and S. K. Yip, in Helium Three, W. P. Halperin and L. P. Pitaevskii, eds. (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1990).
N. D. Mermin, Physica B&C 90, 1 (1977).
A. J. Leggett, Rev. Mod. Phys. 47, 331 (1975).
M. C. Cross, in Quantum Fluids and Solids, S. B. Trickey, E. D. Adams, and J. W. Dufty, eds. (Plenum Press, New York, 1977), p. 183.
R. Kaul and H. Kleinert, J. Low Temp. Phys. 38, 539 (1980).
S. Yip, Phys. Rev. B 35, 8733 (1987).
M. M. Salomaa, J Phys. C 21, 4425 (1988).
N. Schopohl, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1664 (1987).
D. D. Osheroff and M. C. Cross, Phys. Rev. Lett. 38, 905 (1977).
G. B. Olson and M. Cohen, in Proc. Int. Conf. on Solid-Solid Phase Transformation, H. I. Aaronson et al., eds. (Pittsburgh, PA, August, 1981).
N. D. Mermin, in Quantum Fluids & Solids, S. B. Trickey, E. D. Adams and J. W. Dufty, eds. (Plenum Press, New York, 1977), p. 1.
D. Bailin and A. Love, J. Phys. C 13, L271 (1980).
D. S. Buchanan, G. W. Swift, and J. C. Wheatley, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 341 (1986).
G. W. Swift and D. S. Buchanan, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. supp. 26-3, 1828 (1987).
J. Palmeri, Phys. Rev. B 42, 4010 (1990).
J. S. Langer, in Chances and Matter, Proc. 1986 Les Houches Summer School, J. Souletie, J. Vannimenus, and R. Stora, eds. (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1986), p. 147.
S. T. P. Boyd and G. W. Swift, Phys. Rev. Letters 64, 894 (1990).
N. A. Greaves and A. J. Leggett, J. Phys. C 16, 4383 (1983).
S. Yip and A. J. Leggett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 345 (1986).
N. B. Kopnin, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 92, 2106 (1987) [Sov. Phys.-JETP 65, 1187 (1987)].
J. Palmeri, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1872 (1989).
M. Grabinski and M. Liu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2666 (1990).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Leggett, A.J. The 3He A-B interface. J Low Temp Phys 87, 571–593 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114917
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114917