Continuum Model of Helium Desorption Kinetics

Abstract
Helium desorption is treated in a model where the film is assumed to have the thermodynamic properties of bulk liquid and the vapor is described by kinetic theory. Equations for energy and mass conservation determine the dynamics of the system. The model resolves some puzzling features of a number of experiments, and predicts a thermally activated desorption time constant in reasonable agreement with experiment, without adjustable parameters.