Critical Velocity in 3He-B Vibrating Wire Experiments as Analog of Vacuum Instability in a Slowly Oscillating Electric Field

TL;DR

This paper draws an analogy between the critical velocity observed in superfluid 3He-B wire experiments and vacuum instability phenomena in quantum electrodynamics under oscillating electric fields, revealing a lowered threshold for pair creation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analogy between superfluid vortex dynamics and quantum vacuum instability, providing new insights into pair creation thresholds in oscillating potentials.

Findings

Critical velocity in 3He-B is below Landau's prediction.

Vacuum instability threshold is halved in oscillating electric fields.

Analogous behavior between superfluid experiments and quantum field theory.

Abstract

The Lancaster experiments with a cylindrical wire moving in superfluid 3He-B are discussed, where the measured critical velocity of pair creation is much below the Landau critical velocity. The phenomenon is shown to be analogous to the instability of the electron-positron vacuum in an adiabatically alternating strong electric potential of both signs, where the positive- and negative-root levels cross and thus the instability treshold is twice less than in the conventional case of a single static potential well.