A NOVEL-APPROACH TO THE OBSERVATION OF THE CONDENSATE FRACTION IN SUPERFLUID HE-4

We present a phenomenological analysis of an experiment to observe the condensate fraction of helium four by firing low energy pulses of hel ium atoms at suspended droplets of the superfluid and observing the re sulting emission of helium atoms from the fluid. The analysis shows th at two kinds of process will result in such emission In a conventional process in which rotons are produced and propagate to the other side of the droplet, causing re-emission of helium atoms, the cross-section scales quadratically with the geometrical area of the incoming beam. In another process depending on the existence of the condensate fracti on, a lowest order calculation predicts that the cross-section scales with the fourth power of the area of the incoming beam. However a prel iminary calculation of the matrix elements suggests that the first ord er calculation may not be adequate for the experimental conditions env isioned. We briefly discuss possible consequences of this.