A phase transition of the moving superfluid3He A-B interface

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Recent Los Alamos data obtained by Buchanan, Swift and Wheatley (see Phys. Rev. Lett., vol.57, p.341, 1986) on the propagation of the superfluid 3He A-B phase front in hypercooled 3He-A are here first suggested to manifest a novel phase transition-associated with a change in the discrete symmetry and the energy-gap topology of the interface. Symmetry analysis and numerical computations on the moving A-B border support such an interpretation and provide a tentative identification of the moving phase boundaries as functions of the A-B phase-boundary velocity. Further experiments are proposed, especially in high magnetic fields-where the possibility for yet another superfluid A-B interface transition is pointed out-and under rotation.