Simultaneous investigation of shear modulus and torsional resonance of solid He-4

Abstract

We investigate the origin of a resonant period drop of a torsional oscillator (TO) containing solid He-4 by inspecting its relation to a change in elastic modulus. To understand this relationship directly, we measure both phenomena simultaneously using a TO with a pair of concentric piezoelectric transducers inserted in its annulus. We confirm experimentally that both anomalies are directly related. Although the temperature, He-3 concentration, and frequency dependence are essentially the same, a marked discrepancy in the drive amplitude dependence is observed. We find that this discrepancy originates from the anisotropic response of polycrystalline solid He-4 connected with low-angle grain boundaries by studying the shear modulus parallel to and perpendicular to the driving direction