Tag Archive for 'Helium-3'

Sketches illustrating core-mantle helium exchange processes: (a) 3He acquisition during Earth’s accretion by ingassing from the nebular atmosphere and transport through the magma ocean to the proto-core; and (b) 3He transport from the core to the mantle and from the mantle to the ocean after accretion. Image credit: Olson & Sharp, doi: 10.1029/2021GC009985.

Primordial Helium Isotope is Leaking Out of Earth’s Metallic Core: Study

Mar 29, 2022 by News Staff

Each year, about 2 kg of helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas, escapes from Earth’s interior, mostly along the mid-ocean ridge system. Helium-3 is...

Experimental set-up. Quartz-glass sample container cylinder is filled partially with superfluid 3He-B, leaving a free surface of the superfluid approximately 3 mm above the centre of the surrounding coil system. The space above the free surface is vacuum due to the vanishing vapor pressure of 3He at sub-millikelvin temperatures. Magnons can be trapped in this configuration in two separate locations, in the bulk (colored blue) and touching the free surface (colored red). Transverse NMR coils are used both for RF pumping of magnons into the BECs, and for recording the induced signal from the coherently precessing magnetization M (light yellow arrow). The amplitude of the recorded signal is proportional to βM, the tipping angle of M, and its frequency corresponds to the precession frequency of the condensate. The condensates are trapped by the combined effect of the distribution of the orbital anisotropy axis of the superfluid (green arrows) via spin-orbit coupling, and a minimum of the external magnetic field created using a pinch coil (magenta wire loop). The external field H is oriented along the z axis of the sample container. Image credit: Autti et al, doi: 10.1038/s41563-020-0780-y.

Physicists Observe Quantum Time Crystals Interacting with Each Other

Aug 18, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of physicists has studied the controlled interaction of two spatially separated time crystals. Experimental set-up. Quartz-glass...

The precision measurements of tritium and helium-3 nuclei reveal new questions in understanding of nuclear structure. Image credit: DOE’s Jefferson Lab.

Experiments with Tritium and Helium-3 Reveal New Questions in Understanding of Nuclear Structure

Jun 9, 2020 by News Staff

Physicists from the Jefferson Lab Hall A Tritium Collaboration have compared the nuclei of helium and hydrogen isotopes to each other to get a clearer...