Pomeranchuk cooling 2026-10-18
Low-temperature solid helium-3 can have greater entropy than the liquid through disordered nuclear spins, enabling compression cooling. [ref]
The Pomeranchuk Effect by Robert Coleman Richardson. Richardson, 1996 lecture, p.91, introduction and Fig.1
The sign follows from the Clapeyron equation. Let be molar entropies and molar volumes of liquid and solid, respectively, on their phase coexistence curve. Equality of their chemical potentials, with , givesWith and , the slope is negative. Reversibly freezing one mole at fixed temperature requires heat into the sample,Here uses the melting convention for latent heat of fusion. This is the opposite sign from ordinary ice melting. The inequalities specify the regime; freezing does not universally cool a substance. In an approximately isolated sample, the growing higher-entropy phase draws on the sample's thermal energy instead of an external heater. Irreversible losses and incoming heat oppose the cooling.