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Department of Physics
Departmental Colloquium

November 10, 2004
4:00 pm in Swain West 119
Tea at 3:30 pm in SW113
Speaker: M.W. H. Chan, Pennsylvania State University
Title: Observation of Superflow in Solid Helium
Abstract:
We report on the observation of non-classical rotational inertia in solid He-4 confined to an annular
channel in a sample cell under torsional motion, demonstrating sueprfluid behavior. The effect shows up as
a drop in the resonant oscillation period as the sample cell is cooled below 230 mK. Measurement of 17
solid samples allows us to map out the boundary of this superfluid-like solid or supersolid phase from the
melting line up to 66 bars. This experiment indicates that superfluid behavior is found in all three
phases of matter; gas, liquid and solid.
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