Viscosity of Liquid He II

Abstract

The viscosity of liquid ${\mathrm{He}}^4$ has been measured between 1.10°K and the lambda point. A new type of viscometer was used, based on the damping of the transverse vibrations of a fine wire stretched between two rigid supports. The simplicity of the hydrodynamic problem and the low nuisance damping of the wire make this technique particularly appropriate for the measurement of small viscosities. The smoothed data are presented and found to be in good agreement with the latest rotating cylinder viscometer results. In different experimental runs the vibration frequency was varied by a factor of seven and the wire diameter by a factor of three. There was no evidence of systematic trend due to mean free-path effects or geometrical corrections.