Degeneracy effects on the relaxation and recombination of adsorbed doubly polarized atomic hydrogen

Abstract

We determine the influence of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition on the stability of doubly spin-polarized atomic hydrogen adsorbed on a superfluid helium film and find that the lifetime of the gas is enhanced dramatically in the superfluid phase. Moreover, the relevant rate constants have a discontinuous behavior at the critical point. The observation of these effects is an unambiguous way to establish the achievement of the phase transition experimentally.