Bubble Formation in Liquid Helium under Negative Pressure by Quantum Tunneling near Absolute Zero Temperature

절대 0도 부근에서 양자터널링에 의한 헬리움(He)액체의 부압하에서의 기포형성

As the temperature of liquid under negative pressure approaches the absolute zero, the nucleation process due to thermal fluctuations hardly occurs. Instead of this mechanism, quantum fluctuations may lead the formation of nucleus for new phase in metastable state. In this study, the thermal as well as quantum nucleation bubble in liquid helium under negative pressure was investigated theoretically. The energy barrier against nucleation was estimated by molecular interaction due to the Londom dispersion force. It is shown that the phase transition from liquid to vapor in is possible due to the quantum tunneling below 0.2 K for Helium-4 and 0.1 K for Helium-3, at negative pressures close to the ideal tensile strength at which every liquid molecules become bubbles simultaneously.