A CONVECTIVE MODEL OF A ROTON

Abstract

A convective model describing the nature and structure of the roton is proposed. According to the model, the roton is a cylindrical convective cell with free horizontal boundaries. On the basis of the model, the characteristic geometric dimensions of the roton are estimated, and the spatial distribution of the velocity of the helium atoms and the perturbed temperature inside are described. It is assumed that the spatial distribution of rotons has a horizontally multilayer periodic structure, from which follows the quantization of the energy spectrum of rotons. The noted quantization allows us to adequately describe the energy spectrum of rotons. The convective model is quantitatively confirmed by experimental data on the measurement of the density of the normal component of helium II, the scattering of neutrons and light by helium II. The use of a convective model for describing the scattering of light by helium II made it possible to estimate the dipole moment of the roton, as well as the number of helium atoms participating in the formation of the roton.

Keywords

• superfluid helium
• convection
• elementary convective cell
• roton
• energy spectrum of helium II
• density of the normal component of helium II
• neutron scattering
• light scattering
• dipole momentum