The breakdown of superfluidity in liquid
4
He V. Measurement of the Landau critical velocity for roton creation
We report a precise experimental determination of the Landau critical velocity v L for roton creation in Hen. The technique used was based on measurements of the drift velocity, v , of negative ions through isotopically pure liquid 4 He at ca . 80 m K , under the influence of weak electric fields, E , for pressures, P , within the range 13 < P < 25 bar. It relied on the use of the equation ( v — v L ) oc E 1/3 , which is believed to correspond to the creation of rotons occurring predominantly in pairs and which fitted the experimental data to very high precision for E > 500 V m -1 . At lower values of E , however, small deviations from this equation were observed. These are tentatively attributed, not to the predicted onset of single-roton emission, but to a novel form of ion-vortex scattering. The values of v L ( P ) deduced from the measurements of v ( E ) at various pressures for E > 500 V m -1 agree to within 1.5% with theoretical predictions based on Landau’s excitation model of HeII, incorporating accepted numerical values of the roton parameters. The observed pressure dependence of v L ( P ) is significantly stronger than that predicted ; however, a discrepancy that appears to point towards the decreasing accuracy with which the roton parameters are known at high pressures. The modulus of the matrix element | V k0,k0 | characterizing roton-pair emission has also been deduced and is found to decrease rapidly with falling pressure. A linear extrapolation of the data suggests that | V k0,k0 | falls to zero at P « 3 bar (1 bar = 10 5 Pa).