Superflow Induced Phase Transition in the Axial Vortex-Free Texture of Rotating Superfluid (3) He-B

摘要

In an axial magnetic field the order parameter texture of superfluid (3)He-B has the well-known flare-out structure. Under homogeneous rotation in the vortex-free state with superfluid counterflow the flare-out texture is observed to undergo a 1st order phase transition. The critical rotation velocity has a temperature, pressure and magnetic field dependence which, when compared with calculations of the relative energies of axial textures, prove that counterflow causes the simple flare-out structure to become unstable with respect to a new solution to the texture problem.