0000000001019579
AUTHOR
M. Guilleumas
Cavitation in 3He-4he Liquid Mixtures
Phase transitions under equilibrium conditions are experimentally well determined and take place in the coexistence regime. However, phase transitions do not always occur under equilibrium conditions. As the new phase forms, the free energy of the system is lowered, but the original phase can be held in a metastable state close to the equilibrium transition point. Although they are internally stable, in each case there exists another configuration that has a lower thermodynamical potential. The metastable state is separated from the stable state by a thermodynamic barrier. Due to statistical fluctuations in density or concentration, this barrier can be overcome as the result of the formatio…
Thermal nucleation of cavities in liquid helium at negative pressures
We have investigated the nucleation rate at which cavities are formed in $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ and $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ at negative pressures due to thermal fluctuations. To this end, we have used a density functional that reproduces the He liquid-gas interface along the coexistence line. The inclusion of thermal effects in the calculation of the barrier against nucleation results in a sizable decrease of the absolute value of the tensile strength above 1.5 K.