Evolution of Neutron-Initiated Micro-Big-Bang in superfluid He 3B

Abstract

A nuclear capture reaction of a single neutron by ultra-cold superfluid ${}^3$He results in a rapid overheating followed by the expansion and subsequent cooling of the hot subregion, in a certain analogy with the Big Bang of the early Universe. It was shown in a Grenoble experiment that a significant part of the energy released during the nuclear reaction was not converted into heat even after several seconds. It was thought that the missing energy was stored in a tangle of quantized vortex lines. This explanation, however, contradicts the expected lifetime of a bulk vortex tangle, $10^{-5}-10^{-4}$s, which is much shorter than the observed time delay of seconds. In this Letter we propose a scenario that resolves the contradiction: the vortex tangle, created by the hot spot, emits isolated vortex loops that take with them a significant part of the tangle's energy. These loops quickly reach the container walls. The dilute ensemble of vortex loops attached to the walls can survive for a long time, while the remaining bulk vortex tangle decays quickly.

5 pages, PRL submitted

References in corpus (5)

• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a quenched ferromagnetic spinor Bose condensate
• Quantum and quasiclassical types of superfluid turbulence
• Higgs bosons in particle physics and in condensed matter
• Cascade of vortex loops initiated by a single reconnection of quantum vortices
• Electron - nuclear recoil discrimination by pulse shape analysis

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• Bathtub vortex in superfluid ${}^4$He
• Spherically symmetric formation of localized vortex tangle around a heat source in superfluid ${}^4$He
• Vortex-bound solitons in topological superfluid ${}^3$He
• Coupled dynamics of quantized vortices and normal fluid in superfluid ${}^4$He based on lattice Boltzmann method
• Continuous Dimer Angles on the Silicon Surface: Critical Properties and the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism