Viscosity and relaxation processes in the phonon-roton system of He II

Abstract

The viscosity of He4 in the temperature range 0.1–2.2K has been measured using a vibrating quartz tuning fork. A quantitative comparison is made of the experimental data and the conclusions of the modern theory of the phonon-roton system of superfluid helium. The complex hierarchy of relaxation processes is analyzed and the role and contribution of each process to the coefficient of viscosity are determined. Agreement between the experiments and theory is obtained in the hydrodynamic region. The transition from the hydrodynamic to the ballistic regime of phonon flow is analyzed and the effective viscosity of He II at such temperatures is found. It is shown that the position of the maximum of the temperature dependence of the effective viscosity, obtained using different methods of measurement, correlates with the characteristic size of the measuring apparatus.