Anomalous specific heat of liquid 3He above the superfluid transition temperature

Abstract

The contribution to the specific heat due to order parameter fluctuations in liquid 3He just above the superfluid transition temperature T c is calculated exactly within a Landau theory approach. The effect turns out to be unobservably small and thus cannot explain the large (∼9%) rise in specific heat above the normal state value at the saturated vapor pressure in a recently reported experiment. We do not find the divergence of the specific heat at T cobtained earlier by Thouless from a microscopic calculation and indicate how the difference can be reconciled.