Vortex-Loops and Phase Nucleation in Superfluid 4He and 3He

We propose a new model for the nature of the nucleation of solid from the superfluid phases of 4He and 3He. A fast solidification event in the superfluid results in a local release of pressure and a velocity field in the superfluid. This in turn facilitates the nucleation of vortex-loops. The kinetic energy gain of this process balances the surface tension, as the solid surface is quickly covered by many vortex-loops (“hairy snow-ball”). We show that this scenario gives good agreement with experiments on heterogeneous nucleation.