Theory of the Surface Tension Maximum of Liquid 3He

Recently Matsumoto et al. performed very precise measurements of the surface tension of liquid ³He, (T), at low temperatures and found that (T) exhibits a small maximum at about 100 mK. Existing theories are unable to explain this anomaly. On the basis of a local approximation for the entropy in which the Fermi liquid effect is included, we can evaluate the variation of (T), (T)=(T)–(0), as a function of T and of the number density (or the interaction strength). It is found that (T) consists of two terms; a T² term and T⁴ ln T term. We predict that, for the density of real liquid ³He, exhibits a tiny minimum and a small but relatively larger maximum. This prediction explains qualitatively and quantitatively all salient features of the observed (T).