Abstract
As early as 1928, the terms “He I” and “He II” were assigned to liquid helium in order to distinguish the thermal and state properties of the liquid above and below the lambda-point temperature, about 2.17 K. In the late 1930s, the discovery of the exceptional mass and thermal transport properties of He II earned the fluid the additional title of “superfluid.” Since then, these transport properties have excited and tantalized some of the world’s foremost experimental and theoretical physicists. Here, brief consideration is given to the early theoretical models of F. London, Tisza, and Landau who attempted to explain such superfluid phenomena as “zero viscosity,” the thermomechanical (fountain) effect, anomalously high thermal conductivity, and superfluid film flow. Superfluid critical velocities and dissipative processes are discussed in terms of Onsager/Feynman vortex line/ring production. Some details are given of narrow-channel isothermal and thermal flow, film-flow, and film thickness experiments conducted at Los Alamos in efforts to elucidate dissipation processes in these systems. Despite the considerable progress made in understanding superfluidity and the causes of its breakdown, much remains to be explored and explained.
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References
References to work on superfluid helium before 1970 can be found in the following monographs: a. W. H. Keesom, “Helium”, Elsevier, Amsterdam (1942). b. F. London, “Superfluids”, Vol. II, John Wiley, New York (1954). c. K. R. Atkins, “Liquid Helium, ” Cambridge U.P. (1959). d. J. Wilks, “The Properties of Liquid and Solid Helium, ” Oxford U.P. (1967). e. W. E. Keller, “Helium-3 and Helium-4, ” Plenum, New York (1969).
L. J. Campbell, Superfluid film flow, in: “The Helium Liquids, Proc. 15 Scottish Univs. Summer School in Physics”, J. G. M. Armitage and I. E. Farquahar, eds., Academic Press, London (1974), p. 127.
J. T. Tough, Superfluid turbulence, in: “Progress in Low Temperature Physics”, Vol. VIII, D. F. Brewer, ed., North Holland (1984), p. 135.
W. I. Glaberson and K. W. Schwarz, Quantized vortices in superfluid helium-4, Physics Today 40/2:54 (1987).
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© 1990 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Keller, W.E. (1990). Understanding Some of the Mysteries of Superfluid Helium. In: Fast, R.W. (eds) Advances in Cryogenic Engineering. Advances in Cryogenic Engineering, vol 35. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0639-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0639-9_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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