The thermophysical properties of spin-polarized atomic tritium (T↓) in the temperature range 0.01 K–10 K

Abstract

The thermophysical properties of spin-polarized atomic tritum (T↓) are calculated in the temperature range 0.01 K–10 K using the Galitskii–Migdal–Feynman (GMF) formalism. The calculations are performed using Silvera and Born–Oppenheimer triplet-state potentials. It is concluded that T↓ may form a liquid at very low temperatures. At low T, the effective s-wave scattering length a0 < 0, which corresponds to a very weak attractive interaction. There is no bound state for the T↓ dimer, but the negative a0 indicates that it is only slightly short of binding. The transport properties of T↓ increase with increasing temperature. This behavior shows that T↓ remains as a gas in this T-range. The transport properties of 3He and 4He are included for comparison purposes. The difference in the transport properties of T↓ and 3He is due to the fact that T↓ atoms obey Bose statistics while 3He atoms obey Fermi statistics, whereas the difference with the 4He (Boson) is due to the mass difference between T↓ and 4He.