Microkelvin thermometry with Bose-Einstein condensates of magnons and applications to studies of the AB interface in superfluid ³He

Coherent precession of trapped Bose–Einstein condensates of magnons is a sensitive probe for magnetic relaxation processes in superfluid ³He-B down to the lowest achievable temperatures. We use the dependence of the relaxation rate on the density of thermal quasiparticles to implement thermometry in ³He-B at temperatures below 300 μK. Unlike popular vibrating wire or quartz tuning fork based thermometers, magnon condensates allow for contactless temperature measurement and make possible an independent in situ determination of the residual zero-temperature relaxation provided by the radiation damping. We use this magnon-condensate-based thermometry to study the thermal impedance of the interface between A and B phases of superfluid ³He. The magnon condensate is also a sensitive probe of the orbital order-parameter texture. This has allowed us to observe for the first time the non-thermal signature of the annihilation of two AB interfaces.