Effect of Magnetic Impurities on Superfluid He 3

It is known that both magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities suppress unconventional superconductivity. Here we compare their effect on the paradigm unconventional superconductor, superfluid He3, using highly dilute silica aerogel. Switching magnetic to nonmagnetic scattering in the same physical system is achieved by coating the aerogel surface with He4. We find a marginal influence on the transition temperature itself. However, we have discovered that the A phase, which breaks time reversal symmetry, is strongly influenced, while the isotropic B phase is unchanged. Importantly, this occurs only if the impurities are anisotropically distributed on a global scale.