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Fnord666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Helium-3 is a rare isotope of helium, in which one neutron is missing. It becomes superfluid at extremely low temperatures, enabling unusual properties such as a lack of friction for moving objects.

It was thought that the speed of objects moving through superfluid helium-3 was fundamentally limited to the critical Landau velocity, and that exceeding this speed limit would destroy the superfluid. Prior experiments in Lancaster have found that it is not a strict rule and objects can move at much greater speeds without destroying the fragile superfluid state.

Now scientists from Lancaster University have found the reason for the absence of the speed limit: exotic particles that stick to all surfaces in the superfluid.

The discovery may guide applications in quantum technology, even quantum computing, where multiple research groups already aim to make use of these unusual particles.

Journal Reference:
S. Autti, S. L. Ahlstrom, R. P. Haley, et al. Fundamental dissipation due to bound fermions in the zero-temperature limit [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18499-1 [doi.org])

Original Submission