Physics – Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
1995-12-15
Nature 382 (1996) 334
Physics
Condensed Matter
4 pages, LaTeX file, 4 figures are available at ftp://boojum.hut.fi/pub/publications/lowtemp/LTL-95009.ps
Scientific paper
10.1038/382334a0
We report the observation of vortex formation upon the absorption of a thermal neutron in a rotating container of superfluid $^3$He-B. The nuclear reaction n + $^3$He = p + $^3$H + 0.76MeV heats a cigar shaped region of the superfluid into the normal phase. The subsequent cooling of this region back through the superfluid transition results in the nucleation of quantized vortices. Depending on the superflow velocity, sufficiently large vortex rings grow under the influence of the Magnus force and escape into the container volume where they are detected individually with nuclear magnetic resonance. The larger the superflow velocity the smaller the rings which can expand. Thus it is possible to obtain information about the morphology of the initial defect network. We suggest that the nucleation of vortices during the rapid cool-down into the superfluid phase is similar to the formation of defects during cosmological phase transitions in the early universe.
Eltsov V. B.
Gill Alasdair James
Kibble T. W. B.
Krusius M.
Makhlin Yu. G.
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