Vibrating wire measurements in liquid³He II. The superfluid B phase

Abstract

Measurements with a vibrating wire viscometer in superfluid³He-B at temperatures down to 0.6 mK are described. The need to consider compressibility of the superfluid component in any analysis of vibrating wire measurements is clearly demonstrated and a theoretical calculation of the force acting on a vibrating wire in a finite compressible superfluid is given. The experimental data are consistent with this calculation if theoretical values of the second viscosity ξ₃ are used in the analysis. The failure of the hydrodynamic theory when the quasiparticle mean free path1 is comparable to the wire radius a was observed, and an expression has been deduced for the force acting on the wire when1 is finite. Experimental and theoretical evidence is presented to show that this expression is valid for arbitrary1/a. Values of the viscosity obtained using this expression agree with those obtained in other experimental work and confirm the large discrepancy with theoretical calculations at low reduced temperatures.