BWhat changed
Rayfield and Schoepe introduced a tunneling interpretation of their earlier measured electron escape from liquid helium in 1971, fitting temperature-dependent trapping data to infer bubble-state properties. In a detailed 1973 study they measured temperature and electric-field dependences in helium-3, helium-4 and mixtures. Their semiclassical model described the reported pure-liquid trends while the mixture results remained anomalous.
Scientific scope
Rayfield and Schoepe introduced a tunneling interpretation of their earlier measured electron escape from liquid helium in 1971, fitting temperature-dependent trapping data to infer bubble-state properties. In a detailed 1973 study they measured temperature and electric-field dependences in helium-3, helium-4 and mixtures. Their semiclassical model described the reported pure-liquid trends while the mixture results remained anomalous. The measured observable is a decaying surface current, while tunneling, binding energies and radii are model interpretations. The model assumes a spherical bubble, a planar surface, an approximate potential and thermal equilibration. The 1971 estimate for the helium-4 radius (12.9 Å) was affected by a numerical error identified in the 1973 paper, whose revised 24.8 Å remained substantially larger than other estimates. The relative scaling agreed with a simple model; the mixture results were not explained. This extends earlier bubble and surface-escape experiments, not discovery of the bubble itself. The two papers reverse author order.
Evidence
The linked original works support the scoped statement and contribution attribution. WRS has not independently replayed experiments or reconstructed a full mathematical proof. The measured observable is a decaying surface current, while tunneling, binding energies and radii are model interpretations. The model assumes a spherical bubble, a planar surface, an approximate potential and thermal equilibration. The 1971 estimate for the helium-4 radius (12.9 Å) was affected by a numerical error identified in the 1973 paper, whose revised 24.8 Å remained substantially larger than other estimates. The relative scaling agreed with a simple model; the mixture results were not explained. This extends earlier bubble and surface-escape experiments, not discovery of the bubble itself. The two papers reverse author order.
Contributors
- The named authors in the research record · SCIENCE: These are the listed authors of the cited contribution sources. Paper authorship does not quantify individual effort. An incomplete list is explicitly marked; same names are not automatically merged.
- Tunneling from Electronic Bubble States in Liquid Helium through the Liquid-Vapor Interface
- Tunneling from electronic bubble states through the liquid-vapor interface of He II
Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-28.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.
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