CENTER FOR APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS
UNIVERZA V MARIBORU UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR
KREKOVA 2 SI-2000 MARIBOR SLOVENIA
Phone +(386) (2) 2355 350 and 2355 351 $\bullet$ Fax +(386) (2) 2355 360
Robnik@uni-mb.si $\bullet$ www.camtp.uni-mb.si
PROF.DR. MARKO ROBNIK, DIRECTOR

Seminarsko predavanje
Centra za uporabno matematiko in teoreticno fiziko

Liquid Helium, Superfluidity, and the Dawn of Time

Professor Dr. Peter V.E. McClintock
Department of Physics, Lancaster University, England

Abstract: The symmetry-breaking phase transition that is believed to have occurred $\sim$10$^{-35}$ s after the dawn of time at the Big Bang would appear to lie forever beyond the reach of experiment. This is unfortunate, because topological defects in space-time created during the transition may perhaps have provided the primordial density inhomogeneities that later gave rise to galaxy formation. Arguably, however, the physics of this remote event can be investigated in the laboratory [1] through studies of mathematically analogous but more accessible phase transitions. One such experiment [2] involved the fast adiabatic passage of a small volume of liquid $^4$He through the lambda (superfluid) transition. The results, and new experiments currently being planned, will be discussed.

$[1]$ W.H. Zurek, ``A cosmological experiment in superfluid helium?'', Nature 317, 505 (1985).
$[2]$ M.E. Dodd, P.C. Hendry, N.S. Lawson, P.V.E. McClintock and C.D.H. Williams, ``Nonappearance of vortices in fast mechanical expansions of liquid He-4 through the lambda transition'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3703 (1998).

Seminarsko predavanje bo v petek 9. februarja 2001 ob 18:15 uri v seminarski sobi CAMTP, Krekova 2, pritlicje. Vljudno vabljeni vsi zainteresirani, tudi študenti.

Prof.Dr. Marko Robnik
-- Direktor CAMTP --