Tricritical Casimir forces and order parameter profiles in wetting films of ^{3}He-^{4}He mixtures.

Abstract

Tricritical Casimir forces in ^{3}He-^{4}He wetting films are studied, within mean field theory, in terms of a suitable lattice gas model for binary liquid mixtures with short-ranged surface fields. The proposed model takes into account the continuous rotational symmetry O(2) of the superfluid degrees of freedom associated with ^{4}He and it allows, inter alia, for the occurrence of a vapor phase. As a result, the model facilitates the formation of wetting films, which provides a strengthened theoretical framework to describe available experimental data for tricritical Casimir forces acting in ^{3}He-^{4}He wetting films.