Virial calculations for spin polarized systems

E. V. L. de Mello

Published Jan 1, 1983• 0 citations

Abstract

Spin polarized hydrogen and helium are being studied extensively because they are expected to exhibit quantum effects on a macroscopic scale. Here, low density properties of spin polarized hydrogen gas in two and three dimensions are studied using a quantum virial expansion. These properties include heat capacities, chemical potentials, and estimates of critical temperatures and densities for Bose-Einstein condensation in three dimensions and for a possible superfluid transition in two dimensions. The classical virial expansion and the validity of effective-range theory is also discussed. The heat capacity of adsorbed helium films of 3He, 4He and spin polarized 3He is also studied. Virial calculations with a structureless substrate approximation but with substrate mediated corrections to the Lennard-Jones potential are performed as a function of applied magnetic field and magnetization. Effects of substrate potential and geometry on the thermodynamics, low density submonolayer helium films physisorbed on rare gas plated graphite substrates are investigated using a tight-binding formalism and a lattice version of potential scattering theory. A generalization of the formalism to lattices with a basis is made and applied to the honeycomb lattice. The calculations with this theory exhibit systematic trends in the specific heat that are in qualitative agreement with presentlymore » available experimental data.« less

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