R&D Magazine reported that an international team led by University of Delaware researchers has formulated a new theoretical computation of the force acting between a pair of helium atoms. Their findings have been published in the May 7 edition of Physical Review Letters, and are thought to be the most accurate to date.
The team was led by Krzysztof Szalewicz, professor in the UD Department of Physics and Astronomy. Also working with the team was Wojciech Cencek, a postdoctoral researcher at UD, as well as colleagues from the University of Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland, and the University of Oslo in Norway.
The research involved using complex numerical techniques to compute several physical effects in the helium “pair potential,” the force acting between a pair of helium atoms. With this new method of computation, the thermophysical properties of gaseous helium will be better known in order to calibrate the apparatus for measuring properties like viscosities or the speed of sound.
Szalewicz notes that accurate knowledge of the pair potential of helium is important in several branches of science, including low-temperature condensed matter physics, spectroscopy, and metrology. He expects the calculations to lead to new, better standards for quantities such as temperature or pressure.
[Source: R&D Magazine]
