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Indivisibility of Electron Bubbles in Helium

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

V. Elser

Abstract

A recent proposal by Maris, 1 that single electron bubbles in helium might fission into separate, particle-like entities, does not properly take into account the failure of the adiabatic approximation when, due to tunneling, there is a long electronic time scale. The point along the fission pathway of a photoexcited p-state bubble, where the adiabatic approximation first breaks down, occurs well before the bubble waist has pinched down forming two cavities. In the connected two-lobed geometry, the p- and s-states are strongly mixed by an antisymmetric vibrational mode, and the excitation decays by the mechanism where one lobe collapses while the other expands into the spherical s-state geometry. The extreme pressure jump in a photoexcited bubble leads to shock formation that may halt the elongation even before adiabaticity is compromised. In this case, the photoexcited bubble decays radiatively from the relaxed p-state geometry.

Date Published

Journal

Journal of Low Temperature Physics

Volume

123

Issue

1-2

Number of Pages

7-23,

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0012112563&doi=10.1023%2fA%3a1017534129860&partnerID=40&md5=78865cc48d2fbeb21f30b6d6980b2fea

DOI

10.1023/A:1017534129860

Group (Lab)

Veit Elser Group

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