Heat capacity of superfluid ^4He in the presence of a heat current near T_λ

Abstract

We present a thermodynamic theory of superfluid helium in the presence of a heat current Q. A thermodynamic relation is derived expressing the heat capacity in terms of ρ_4(W), which describes the depression of the superfluid density with the counterflow velocity W. We find that at constant Q the heat capacity, C_Q, diverges, raising the possibility of a new second order phase transition.

Additional details