Superfluid He-3 in periodic aerogel structures

We theoretically investigate superfluid He-3 in layered structures with semi-transparent interfaces. This system serves as a model for He-3 in planar aerogel, that experiments found to show several unusual features, including phase transitions, textural transitions and constant magnetic susceptibility across He-3A to He-3B transition. To model anisotropic quasiparticle scattering that is present in aerogel, we incorporate both diffuse in-plane scattering and transparency into our layered model. We self-consistently determine the order parameter, quasiparticle spectrum, magnetization and free energy using microscopic quasiclassical formulation. We find that anisotropic scattering and suppression of various order parameter components produces re-orientation transition in the aerogel, consistent with experiments.

This research is supported by NSF grant DMR-2023928.