Eur. Phys. J. B 2, 381-391 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050261

Cavitation in superfluid helium-4 at low temperature

¹ Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'École Normale Supérieure, associé au CNRS et aux Universités Paris 6 et 7, 24 Rue Lhomond 75231, Paris Cedex 05, France
² Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
³ Academy of Sciences of Russia, Institute for Physical Problems, Kosygin Street 2, Moscow 117334, Russia

Corresponding author: ^a proche@physique.ens.fr

Received: 15 November 1997
Revised: 19 December 1997
Accepted: 22 January 1998
Published online: 15 April 1998

Abstract

We have studied the nucleation of bubbles in pure superfluid helium-4 at temperatures down to 65 mK. We have found that the nucleation is a stochastic process, and that at temperatures below 600 mK the nucleation rate is independent of temperature. These results are consistent with the assumption that the nucleation takes place via quantum tunneling.