Share

Superfluids: cosmology in a helium cell.

Author(s) : ZUREK W. H.

Type of article: Article

Summary

The analogy between the transition of superfluid helium cooled through its critical temperature and the spontaneous symmetry breaking-phase transitions that appears in the early Universe has suggested to the author a "cosmological experiment" in bulk superfluid helium, the aim of which was to expand liquid helium 4 rapidly through the transition and to detect the resulting vortices acoustically. Preliminary results were encouraging but inconclusive. In fact, the first experimental confirmation of these breaking-phase transitions came from studies carried out at room temperature in liquid crystals. In liquid crystals, the string-like topological defects can be seen with a microscope, so that it is easy to study the phase transition as it takes place. The basic predictions of the cosmological scenario were then confirmed. Similar experiments could be carried out on superconductors. J.V.

Details

  • Original title: Superfluids: cosmology in a helium cell.
  • Record ID : 1995-2029
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Nature - vol. 368 - n. 6469
  • Publication date: 1994/03/24
  • Document available for consultation in the library of the IIR headquarters only.

Links


See the source

Indexing