Specific Heat of Liquid Helium in Zero Gravity very near the Lambda Point

We report the details and revised analysis of an experiment to measure the specific heat of helium with subnanokelvin temperature resolution near the lambda point. The measurements were made at the vapor pressure spanning the region from 22 mK below the superfluid transition to 4 uK above. The experiment was performed in earth orbit to reduce the rounding of the transition caused by gravitationally induced pressure gradients on earth. Specific heat measurements were made deep in the asymptotic region to within 2 nK of the transition. No evidence of rounding was found to this resolution. The optimum value of the critical exponent describing the specific heat singularity was found to be a = -0.0127+ - 0.0003. This is bracketed by two recent estimates based on renormalization group techniques, but is slightly outside the range of the error of the most recent result. The ratio of the coefficients of the leading order singularity on the two sides of the transition is A+/A- =1.053+ - 0.002, which agrees well with a recent estimate. By combining the specific heat and superfluid density exponents a test of the Josephson scaling relation can be made. Excellent agreement is found based on high precision measurements of the superfluid density made elsewhere. These results represent the most precise tests of theoretical predictions for critical phenomena to date.Comment: 27 Pages, 20 Figure

Five-loop additive renormalization in the phi^4 theory and amplitude functions of the minimally renormalized specific heat in three dimensions

We present an analytic five-loop calculation for the additive renormalization constant A(u,epsilon) and the associated renormalization-group function B(u) of the specific heat of the O(n) symmetric phi^4 theory within the minimal subtraction scheme. We show that this calculation does not require new five-loop integrations but can be performed on the basis of the previous five-loop calculation of the four-point vertex function combined with an appropriate identification of symmetry factors of vacuum diagrams. We also determine the amplitude functions of the specific heat in three dimensions for n=1,2,3 above T_c and for n=1 below T_c up to five-loop order. Accurate results are obtained from Borel resummations of B(u) for n=1,2,3 and of the amplitude functions for n=1. Previous conjectures regarding the smallness of the resummed higher-order contributions are confirmed. Borel resummed universal amplitude ratios A^+/A^- and a_c^+/a_c^- are calculated for n=1.Comment: 30 pages REVTeX, 3 PostScript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Three-loop critical exponents, amplitude functions, and amplitude ratios from variational perturbation theory

We use variational perturbation theory to calculate various universal amplitude ratios above and below T_c in minimally subtracted phi^4-theory with N components in three dimensions. In order to best exhibit the method as a powerful alternative to Borel resummation techniques, we consider only to two- and three-loops expressions where our results are analytic expressions. For the critical exponents, we also extend existing analytic expressions for two loops to three loops.Comment: Author Information under http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/institution.html . Latest update of paper (including all PS fonts) at http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/kleiner_re318/preprint.htm

Critical behavior of the three-dimensional XY universality class

We improve the theoretical estimates of the critical exponents for the three-dimensional XY universality class. We find alpha=-0.0146(8), gamma=1.3177(5), nu=0.67155(27), eta=0.0380(4), beta=0.3485(2), and delta=4.780(2). We observe a discrepancy with the most recent experimental estimate of alpha; this discrepancy calls for further theoretical and experimental investigations. Our results are obtained by combining Monte Carlo simulations based on finite-size scaling methods, and high-temperature expansions. Two improved models (with suppressed leading scaling corrections) are selected by Monte Carlo computation. The critical exponents are computed from high-temperature expansions specialized to these improved models. By the same technique we determine the coefficients of the small-magnetization expansion of the equation of state. This expansion is extended analytically by means of approximate parametric representations, obtaining the equation of state in the whole critical region. We also determine the specific-heat amplitude ratio.Comment: 61 pages, 3 figures, RevTe