Manifestation of dissipation and compressibility in the experiments on quantum cavitation

Abstract

Cavitation in the liquid helium isotopes of 3He and 4He is considered. It is shown that the dissipative processes play an important role in the growth of the stable phase nucleus in the normal liquid 3He. This leads to the lack of the quantum behavior of cavitation in this system down to 2 mK, which is in contrast to the thermal-quantum crossover in the cavitation of the superfluid 4He at 600 mK. Below 180 mK, the dissipative 3He kinetics is of the Knudsen type. The high value (600 mK) for the transition into the quantum kinetic behavior in 4He is related to the compressibility of a liquid, which leads to a noticeable emission of sound with cavitation. The recent experiments on quantum cavitation in the liquid helium isotopes 3He and 4He are discussed.