VORTEX NUCLEATION IN SUPERFLUID HE-4

We have determined the features of a universal energy barrier which mediates the thermal nucleation of quantized vortices. The barrier is deduced from measurements of the intrinsic phase slip critical velocity using both dc flow and single phase slip experiments. It appears that at a given temperature a single curve can predict the outcome of all intrinsic vortex nucleation experiments for flow through small apertures. © 1995 The American Physical Society.