Quality factor of a superfluid He-3 weak link resonator

We measure the quality factor, Q for an oscillating membrane, which is in p arallel with a superfluid He-3 weak link array. We have constructed an effe ctive cell model to help explain these results and find reasonable agreemen t between the experimental data and our theoretical model. The familiar eff ects of first and second viscosity have been considered as well as a new in trinsic dissipation that acts as a linear shunt conductance G across the we ak link. Although the viscous terms dominate, as seen in single orifice wea k links [1], the "shorting" effects of the shunt conductance noticably supp ress the quality factor, especially at low temperatures. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.