Self-Organized Heat Transport Near the Superfluid Transition in ^4He

Abstract

Heat transport through a column of superfluid ^4He has been observed experimentally to self-organize, resulting in a thermal gradient that exactly matches the gradient in the superfluid transition temperature across the column, leaving the entire sample at a constant distance from the superfluid critical point. We describe a new experiment that is designed to accomplish three objectives: 1) search for the upper critical heat flux above which self-organized heat transport can no longer occur, 2) measure the heat capacity of the self-organized heat transport state, and 3) test recent theoretical predictions of the microscopic mechanism that is responsible for this self-organization.