Supercooling of the A phase of ${}^3$He

Abstract

Because of the extreme purity, lack of disorder, and complex order parameter, the first-order superfluid ${}^3$He A-B transition is the leading model system for first order transitions in the early universe. Here we report on the path dependence of the supercooling of the A phase over a wide range of pressures below 29.3 bar at nearly zero magnetic field. The A phase can be cooled significantly below the thermodynamic A-B transition temperature. While the extent of supercooling is highly reproducible, it depends strongly upon the cooling trajectory: The metastability of the A phase is enhanced by transiting through regions where the A phase is more stable. We provide evidence that some of the additional supercooling is due to the elimination of B phase seeds formed upon passage through the superfluid transition. A greater understanding of the physics is essential before the ${}^3$He can be exploited to model transitions in the early universe.

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• A nonperturbative test of nucleation calculations for strong phase transitions
• A-B transition in superfluid ${}^3$He and cosmological phase transitions
• Nanofluidic platform for studying the first-order phase transitions in superfluid helium-3