Description:

Quasiparticles' scattering on surfaces is the dominant pairbreaking mechanism in unconventional superfluids in confinement. It is also the main player that determines the spectrum of the topological surface states of the quasiparticles, due to the interplay of magnetic and orbital degrees of freedom. Spin-triplet, p-wave superfluid He-3 provides a well-established platform for study of such phenomena.

Considering recent experiments on superfluid chiral He-3A phase in thin slabs that show unusually large Tc suppression, we take a closer look at the interactions between the superfluid and the boundaries. To explain the large suppression I will describe several models of scattering from magnetically active surfaces, that appear due to formation of a solid He-3 layer at the boundaries.

Anton Vorontsov, Associate Professor, Montana State University

Host: Bill Halperin