Coupling of rayleigh-like waves with zero-sound modes in normal³He

Abstract

The Landau kinetic equation is solved in the collisionless regime for a sample of normal³He excited by a surface perturbation of arbitrary ω andk. The boundary condition for the nonequilibrium particle distribution is determined for the case of specular reflection of the elementary excitations at the interface. Using the above solution, the energy flux through the boundary is obtained as a function of the surface wave velocity ω/k. The absorption spectrum and its frequency derivative are calculated numerically for typical values of temperature and pressure. The spectrum displays a sharp, resonant-like maximum concentrated at the longitudinal sound velocity and a sharp maximum of the derivative concentrated at the transverse sound velocity. The energy transfer is cut off discontinuously below the Fermi velocity. An experimental measurement of the energy transfer spectrum would permit a determination of both zero-sound velocities and the Fermi velocity with spectroscopic precision.