Mutual Friction in Superfluid He^4 Near the λ-line

Abstract

We present experimental results for the thermal resistivity ρ of superfluid He^4 along several isobars between saturated vapor pressure and the melting pressure. The measurements are for the temperature range 1 - T_c(q)/T_λ < t < 2{\times}10^{-5} and the heat-flux range 3 < q < 70 μW/cm^2. Here t {\equiv} 1-T/T_λ, T_λ is the transition temperature in the limit of zero q, and T_c is the transition temperature at finite q. The data suggest that the resistivity has an incipient singularity at T_λ which can be described by the power law ρ = (t/t0)^{-(mν+α)} where t0 = (q/q0)^x. However, the singularity is supplanted by the transition to a more highly dissipative phase at T_c(q) < T_λ. The results suggest a mild dependence of mν + α on P, but can be described quite well by mν + α = 2.76, x = 0.89, and q_0 = q_{0,0} - q_{0,1}P with q_{0,0} = 401 W/cm^2 and q_{0,1} = -5.0 W /{cm^2-bar}. The results imply that the Gorter-Mellink mutual friction exponent m has a value close to 3.46 and is distinctly larger than the classical value m = 3. We suggest that the reason for this may be found in the nature of the counterflow close to T_λ, which is expected to involve turbulent normalfluid flow.