``Cosmological'' scenario for A-B phase transition in superfluid 3He

TL;DR

This paper extends the Kibble-Zurek scenario to superfluid 3He, explaining defect formation and phase transitions during rapid cooling, including nucleation probabilities and alternative symmetry-breaking mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a new cosmological analogy for superfluid 3He phase transitions, considering independent state nucleation and alternative symmetry breaking.

Findings

Calculated nucleation probabilities for superfluid 3He states.

Explained transition from supercooled A phase to B phase.

Proposed an alternative to the 'baked Alaska' scenario.

Abstract

At a very rapid superfluid transition in $^3$He, follows after a reaction with single neutron, the creation of topological defects (vortices) has recently been demonstrated in accordance with the Kibble-Zurek scenario for the cosmological analogue. We discuss here the extension of the Kibble-Zurek scenario to the case when alternative symmetries may be broken and different states nucleated independently. We have calculated the nucleation probability of the various states of superfluid $^3$He during a superfluid transition. Our results can explain the transition from supercooled $A$ phase to the $B$ phase, triggered by nuclear reaction. The new scenario is an alternative to the well-known ``baked Alaska'' scenario.