  We examine the energetics of bulk and layer-roton excitations of 4He in
various porous medial such as aerogel, Geltech, or Vycor, in order to find out
what conclusions can be drawn from experiments on the energetics about the
physisorption mechanism. The energy of the layer-roton minimum depends
sensitively on the substrate strength, thus providing a mechanism for a direct
measurement of this quantity. On the other hand, bulk-like roton excitations
are largely independent of the interaction between the medium and the helium
atoms, but the dependence of their energy on the degree of filling reflects the
internal structure of the matrix and can reveal features of 4He at negative
pressures. While bulk-like rotons are very similar to their true bulk
counterparts, the layer modes are not in close relation to two-dimensional
rotons and should be regarded as a third, completely independent kind of
excitation.
