An attempt to produce both thick and thinned flowing superfluid films

Abstract

As discussed in the preceding paper by Graham, a controversy has arisen over conflicting reports of whether a superfluid film becomes thinned when it is set into motion. We have performed an experiment designed to reproduce as nearly as possible two previous measurements giving opposite results. Our experiment is also designed to test directly a theory proposed by Goodstein and Saffman which would have reconciled the apparently contradictory observations. We are unable to reproduce the thick-film result, finding kinetic thinning in all cases, even where the Goodstein-Saffman theory would lead us to expect a thick film. We conclude, in agreement with Graham, that the film is always thinned when it flows, and that the theory is therefore unnecessary.

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