Observation of a New Type of Negative Ion in Superfluid Helium

In recent work, we have developed a new technique for the study of the properties of electron bubbles (negative ions) in liquid helium. We use ultrasound to measure the critical negative pressure Pc at which an electron bubble becomes unstable and explodes. The value of Pc is affected, for example, by the quantum state of the electron and is reduced if the bubble is attached to a quantized vortex. In the present experiments, we have discovered a new type of object that appears to be larger than the usual electron bubble. We will consider possible explanations of these observations.