Giant viscosity enhancement in a spin-polarized fermi liquid.
The viscosity is measured for a Fermi liquid, a dilute 3He-4He mixture, under extremely high magnetic field/temperature conditions (B<or=14.8 T, T>or=1.5 mK). The spin-splitting energy microB is substantially greater than the Fermi energy kBTF; as a consequence the polarization tends to unity and s-wave quasiparticle scattering is suppressed for T<<TF. Using a novel composite vibrating-wire viscometer an enhancement of the viscosity is observed by a factor of more than 500 over its low-field value. Good agreement is found between the measured viscosity and theoretical predictions based upon a t-matrix formalism.
Akimoto
H
H
Microkelvin Laboratory, NHMFL, and Physics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
Xia
J S
JS
Candela
D
D
Mullin
W J
WJ
Adams
E D
ED
Sullivan
N S
NS