Quantum nucleation of gas bubbles in liquid helium

Abstract

Liquid helium under negative pressures represents a unique possibility for studying nucleation and growth dynamics of cavities at low temperatures down to absolute zero. We analyze the growth dynamics of cavities and determine the temperature behavior of quantum cavitation rate and the crossover temperature between the classical and quantum cavitation mechanisms. The energy dissipation processes, which differ in kind in normal fluid 3 He and superfluid 4 He, result in the different temperature behavior of cavitation rate in 3 He and 4 He below the thermal-quantum crossover temperature.