Floating Electrons on a Sea of Helium
arstechnica.com13 points by coloneltcb 5 days ago
13 points by coloneltcb 5 days ago
Helium can "actually remain liquid up to temperatures of 4 Kelvin, which doesn't require the extreme refrigeration technologies needed for things like transmons."
Well. I had thought liquid helium was famous for being rather extremely cold. I stand recalibrated. Now I have to go look up 'transmons'.
At a certain point it flips from 'how far below room temperature is it' to 'how close to absolute zero is it' and things get exponentially harder as you approach the limit.
> Liquid helium is also a superfluid, meaning it flows without viscosity.
No. At least not at temperatures > 2.17 K, which is where the phase change occurs. In the range (2.17..4]K, He is just a regular liquid; it is only superfluid in the range (0..2.17]K.
Hard to trust anything in the article when it gets something that fundamental that wrong.