A finite-temperature density functional study of electron self-trapping in He-3 and He-4

作者：Jin Dafei^*; Guo Wei

来源：Journal of Chemical Physics, 2012, 136(24): 244510.

DOI：10.1063/1.4730747

We introduce a compact finite-temperature density functional model to study electron self-trapping in both liquid and vapor He-3 and He-4. This model can quantitatively reproduce the most essential thermodynamic properties of He-3 and He-4 along their liquid-vapor coexistence lines. The structures and energetics of self-trapped electron bubbles on the 1S ground state and 1P excited state are particularly investigated. Our results show that 1S and 1P bubbles exist in liquid at any temperature, whereas 1S bubbles exist in vapor only above 1.6 K in He-3 and above 2.8 K in He-4, 1P bubbles exist in vapor only above 2.5 K in He-3 and 4.0 K in He-4. An initially spherical 1P bubble is unstable against deformation towards a peanut shape. In liquid, a peanut-shaped 1P bubble is held from fission by surface tension until reaching the liquid-vapor critical point, whereas in vapor it always splits into two smaller bubbles. The existence of 1P bubbles in finite-temperature liquid helium and their fission instability in helium vapor reveal interesting physics in this system.

• 出版日期2012-6-28
• 单位MIT