1/t pressure and fermion behaviour of water in two dimensions

TL;DR

This paper presents a chemisorption model explaining the 1/t pressure behavior of water in vacuum systems, linking it to fermion-like behavior and confirming the temperature dependence through experiments.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel chemisorption model for water adsorbates that explains the power-law pressure dependence and predicts its temperature scaling, supported by experimental validation.

Findings

Pressure follows a 1/t power-law over time.

Pressure depends on temperature as T^(3/2).

Model predictions are confirmed experimentally.

Abstract

A variety of metal vacuum systems display the celebrated 1/t pressure, namely power-law dependence on time t, with the exponent close to unity, the origin of which has been a long-standing controversy. Here we propose a chemisorption model for water adsorbates, based on the argument for fermion behaviour of water vapour adsorbed on a stainless-steel surface, and obtain analytically the power-law behaviour of pressure, with an exponent of unity. Further, the model predicts that the pressure should depend on the temperature T according to T^(3/2), which is indeed confirmed by our experiment. Our results should help elucidate the unique characteristics of the adsorbed water.