On the Phase Transition in Liquid Helium

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Abstract
The method developed in the preceding paper for treating non-ideal quantum gases is applied to a gas of helium atoms having the density and temperature of liquid helium. The object is to investigate the influence of binary collisions on London's ideal Einstein-Bose gas model of liquid helium. It is shown that the condensation temperature and the continuity of the specific heat at this temperature are not affected. These results are independent of the force law assumed to hold between a pair of atoms. Explicit calculations for a rigid sphere interaction of small radius show that the specific heat is lowered near the condensation temperature. It seems possible that the phase transition observed in liquid helium is characteristic of a condensed system, and cannot be obtained from a gas approximation method such as that employed here.

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