The isotopic shift in the melting curve of He has been measured between 70 and 260 K. An exponential divergence from accurate path-integral Monte Carlo calculations is observed which leads to an opposite isotopic shift above 200 K. The same measurements have also been performed in isotopic H₂ at 296 K where a reasonable agreement with theory is obtained. Tentative explanations of this puzzling discrepancy in He are discussed: importance of many-body forces, breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, and importance of statistics.
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Loubeyre et al. (1992) studied this question.
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