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Main articles

Some methodological and historical considerations in low temperature

Physics II: The case of superfluidity

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Pages 137-146 | Published online: 22 Aug 2006

References

  • Gavroglou , K. and Goudaroulis , Y. 1984 . Some Methodological and Historical Considerations in Low Temperature Physics: The Case of Superconductivity 1911–1957 . Annals of Science , 41 : 135 – 149 . K. Gavroglou and Y. Goudaroulis, ‘From the History of Low Temperature Physics: Prejudicial Attitudes that Hindered the Initial Development of Superconductivity Theory’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 32 (1985), 377–83.
  • Onnes , H. Kamerlingh . 1911 . Communication of the Physics Laboratory. University of Leiden , [hereafter Com. Phys. Lab. Leiden] no. 120 b (1911); no. 122 b (1911).
  • London , F. and London , H. 1935 . The Electromagnetic Equations of the Supraconductors . Proceedings of the Royal Society A , 149 : 77 – 88 . (p. 87). F. London, ‘Macroscopical Interpretation of Supraconductivity’, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 152 (1935), 24–33 (p. 31).
  • Meissner , W. and Ochsenfeld , R. 1933 . Ein neuer Effekt bei Eintritt der Supraleitfahigkeit . Die Naturwissenschaften , 21 : 787 – 788 .
  • Lakatos , I. 1980 . “ Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes ” . In Imre Lakatos Philosophical Papers Edited by: Worrall , J. and Currie , G. Vol. I , 8 – 101 . Cambridge in
  • Kapitza , P. 1938 . Viscosity of Liquid Helium below the λ-Point . Nature , 141 : 74 – 74 .
  • By 1928 there was a successful theory of electrical conductivity due to the work of Sommerfeld A. Zür Electronen-Theorie der Metalle auf Grund der Fermischen Statistik Zeitschrift für Physik 1928 47 1 32 and F. Bloch, ‘Uber die Quanten Mechanik der Elektronen in Kirstallgittern’, ibid., 52 (1929), 555–600, where nearly all the properties of metals were understood qualitatively and in most cases quantitatively as well.
  • Simon , F. 1927 . Züm Prinzip von der Unerveichbarkeit des absoluten Nullpunktes . Zeitschrift für Physik , 41 : 806 – 809 .
  • London , F. 1950 . Superfluids Vol. II , 17 – 17 . New York
  • Reif , F. Quantum Fluids . Proceedings of the Batsheva Seminar . 1968 , Haifa. Superfluidity: The paradox of atomic simplicity and remarkable behavior , Edited by: Wiser , N. and Amit , D.J. pp. 1 – 14 . New York (p. 4)
  • Feynman , R.P. 1955 . “ Application of Quantum Mechanics to Liquid Helium ” . In Progress in Low Temperature Phsics Edited by: Gorter , C.J. Vol. I , 17 – 53 . Amsterdam in (p. 17)
  • Reif , F. 1970 . “ Superfluidity: The paradox of atomic simplicity and remarkable behavior ” . In Quantum Fluids Edited by: Wiser , N. and Amit , D.J. 4 – 4 . New York in (Proceedings of the Batsheva Seminar, Haifa, 1968), edited by
  • An instance of a successful use of such a method is Pauli's proposal for the existence of the neutrino where a particle with properties that defined all the accepted criteria for elementary particles was used to account for the missing energy. An attempt years later to use the same method in order to account for parity violation was not successful. See Gavroglou K. Popper's Schema, Progressive Research Programs and the Case of Parity Violation in Elementary Particles Physics 1953–1958 Zeitschrift für allgemeine Wissenschaftstheories (to be published in
  • Heelan , P. 1975 . Heisenberg and Radical Theoretical Change . Zeitschrift für allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie , 6 : 113 – 137 .
  • Onnes , H. Kamerlingh . 1913 . Nobel Lecture 303 – 336 .
  • Onnes , H. Kamerlingh . 1913 . Nobel Lecture 327 – 327 .
  • Onnes , H. Kamerlingh . 1913 . Nobel Lecture 327 – 327 .
  • Onnes , H. Kamerlingh . 1913 . Nobel Lecture 327 – 327 .
  • In 1924, Kamerlingh Onnes and Boks found that the density-temperature function has a sharp maximum with a discontinuity of its slope at 2·19 K; Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Refrigeration Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Refrigeration London Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Refrigeration London 1924 London 1925 189 a 200 a 2 vols I Reprinted in Com. Phys. Lab. Leiden, no. 170 b (1925). In 1928, Keesom and Wolfke, comparing the discontinuity with a phase transition, were first to use the terminology ‘helium I’ and helium II' suggesting the idea of a kind of allotropic modification, helium II being the low temperature form. (Com. Phys. Lab. Leiden, 190 b.) Specific heat measurements by Keesom and Clusius in 1932 showed a singularity of the specific heat curve whose characteristic profile resembles the shape of the letter λ; Proceedings of the Royal Academy, Amsterdam, 35 (1932), 307.
  • This was discovered independently and almost simultaneously in 1938 by P. Kapitza in Moscow Kapitza Viscosity of Liquid Helium below the λ-Point Nature 1938 141 74 74 and J. F. Allen and A. D. Misener in Cambridge (Allen and Misener, ‘Flow of Liquid Helium II’, Nature, 141 (1938), 75).
  • The fountain effect was discovered in 1938 by Allen J.F. Jones H. New Phenomena Connected with Heat Flow in Helium II Nature 1938 141 243 244
  • This ‘supersurface’ film phenomenon was verified Daunt J.G. Mendelssohn K. Transfer of Helium II on Glass Nature 1938 141 911 912 and ‘Transfer effect in Liquid Helium II’, ibid., 142 (1938), 475.
  • See article by Kapitza Viscosity of Liquid Helium below the λ-Point Nature 1938 141 74 74
  • Allen and Misener . 1938 . Flow of Liquid Helium II . Nature , 141 : 75 – 75 .
  • See article by Allen Jones New Phenomena Connected with Heat Flow in Helium II Nature 1938 141 243 244
  • See article by Allen Jones New Phenomena Connected with Heat Flow in Helium II Nature 1938 141 243 244
  • London , F. 1938 . The λ-Phenomenon of Liquid Helium and the Bose-Einstein Degeneracy . Nature , 141 : 643 – 644 .
  • Mendelssohn , K. 1977 . The Quest of Absolute Zero , second edition 255 – 255 . London In the early thirties many people suspected that helium had a triple point, and that the phase below 2·2K might, in fact, be crystalline. Admittedly at that temperature helium is mobile but instances were known where the crystal planes are so smooth that they are continually slipping. Liquid helium, they argued, owing to its low boiling, must be ideally pure and it might be the extreme case of such a ‘liquid crystal’. This explanation turned out to be wrong.
  • Einstein , A. 1925 . “ Quantentheorie des einatomigen idealen Gases ” . In Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Phys.-Math. Klasse 3 – 16 . Jahrgang Einstein's calculation showed that an ideal gas obeying Bose statistics must undergo a curious change when cooled to a very low temperature. A point will be reached where some of the particles must ‘condense’. However, the condensation predicted by Einstein does not result in a crystal since it takes place not in the space of positions but in that of velocities. See also Mendelssohn, (footnote 30), Chapters 7 and 11.
  • F. London as quoted in Pines D. Elementary excitations in quantum liquids Physics Today 1981 11 106 131 (p. 119). Cf. London (footnote 29), and ‘On the Bose-Einstein Condensation’, Physical Reviews, 54 (1938), 947–54.
  • Mendelssohn . 1977 . The Quest of Absolute Zero , second edition 256 – 256 . London
  • Tisza , L. 1938 . Transport phenomena in Helium II . Nature , 141 : 913 – 913 .
  • Landau , L. 1941 . The Theory of Superfluidity of Helium II . Journal of Physics, Moscow , 5 : 71 – 90 .
  • Feynman , R. 1953 . Atomic Theory of the λ-transition in Helium . Physical Review , 91 : 1291 – 1301 . ‘Atomic Theory of Liquid Helium near Absolute Zero’, ibid. pp. 1301–8; ‘Atomic Theory of the two-fluid model of Liquid Helium’, ibid. 94 (1954), 262–77.

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