THE GROUND STATE OF SOLID HE3

Abstract

A ground-state wave function for solid He3 in the body centered cubic phase is calculated in the form of a product of single-particle orbitals and pair correlations. The correlation part is an eigenfunction of the Pluvinage Hamiltonian with each pair in a state of zero energy in a frame in which their center of mass is at rest. Assuming that exchange effects are small, we obtain an approximate single-particle probability function from this wave function. The many-body energy is obtained from this single-particle probability function from basic principles by a plausibility argument, and leads to a pressurevolume relation that is in good agreement with observation. Exchange effects arise from the original wave function, when suitably antisymmetrized. This predicts an exchange energy of about 0.005 K near the melting curve, in agreement with a recent experiment of Adams, Meyer, and Fairbank; this exchange energy favors antiferromagnetic alignment. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1961
Accession Number
AD0258210

Entities

People

  • Edward M. Saunders

Organizations

  • Stanford University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Eigenvectors
  • Ground State
  • Mathematics
  • Observation
  • Particles
  • Probability
  • Wave Functions

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Linear Algebra
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.
  • Theoretical Analysis.

Technology Areas

  • Space