Underbarrier nucleation kinetics in a metastable quantum liquid near the liquid-gas spinodal line

Abstract

We develop a theory in order to describe the effect of relaxation in a condensed medium upon the quantum decay of a metastable liquid near the spinodal at low temperatures. We find that both the regime and the rate of quantum nucleation strongly depend on the relaxation time and its temperature behavior. The quantum nucleation rate slows down with the decrease of the relaxation time. We also discuss the low temperature experiments on cavitation in normal 3 He and superfluid 4 He at negative pressures. It is the sharp distinctions in the high frequency sound mode and in the temperature behavior of the relaxation time that make the quantum cavitation kinetics in 3 He and 4 He completely different in kind.