2006/11/13 by Sebastien Balibar, Sébastien Balibar, S. Balibar · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #physics.hist-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10909-006-9276-7
30 pages
arxiv created 2006/11/13 · openalex publication_date 2007/01/10 · crossref created 2007/01/10 · crossref issued 2007/01/11 · crossref published 2007/01/11 · crossref published-online 2007/01/11 · crossref published-print 2007/03/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/26 · crossref deposited 2022/05/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Superfluidity is a remarkable manifestation of quantum mechanics at the macroscopic level. This article describes the history of its discovery, which took place at a particularly difficult period of the twentieth century. A special emphasis is given to the role of J.F. Allen, D. Misener, P. Kapitza, F. London, L. Tisza and L.D. Landau. The nature and the importance of their respective contributions are analyzed and compared. Of particular interest is the controversy between Landau on one side, London and Tisza on the other, concerning the relevance of Bose-Einstein condensation to the whole issue, and also on the nature of thermal excitations in superfluid helium 4. In order to aid my understanding of this period, I have collected several testimonies which inform us about the work and attitude of these great scientists.